“Holy crap!” Ford muttered.
“Why is it holy? Did you bless it?” Joelle looked nothing like her aunt. She was a tall blond, with clear blue eyes and, as Billy Joe would say with one of his sly winks, built like an hourglass—tiny waist, rounded hips that filled out her denim shorts just fine, and a top that stretched the knit of her T-shirt. “Are you ready to get this trip started, or do you want to take a minute and tell me about ‘holy crap’?”
“Are we really going to drive this thing?” Ford asked.
“It’s their party, and they are in the bus ready to go,” Joelle said with half a giggle. “They’re not only doing the top thing on each of their bucket lists, but they’re chasing their teenage dreams. They were all born right here in Whitewright, Texas, and were groomed to be ranchers, and all they’ve ever done is work. They never moved or even got to go on vacations. Now if you and I don’t step up and take their places, they are going to put their land on the market and move into a fancy retirement village in the city.”
“Three places?” Ford followed her around to the bus. He’d thought he might be running his grandfather’s ranch and there was a possibility that Joelle would take over Sharlene. But Nita’s ranch?
“If we decide to be ranchers, then Nita’s place separates Billy Joe’s and Aunt Sharlene’s.” She paused at the door and looked up at Ford’s. “She’s going to deed half of it to you and half to me since she doesn’t have any family left, with the stipulation that she and Sharlene can live in her house together until they have both passed away.”
“Holy crap!” Ford said again.
“Is that your favorite saying?” Joelle asked. “Didn’t Billy Joe tell you the whole story?”
“I guess he was so excited over getting to make this trip that he forgot,” Ford answered. “It’s going to be a long two weeks.”
“Y’all going to stand out there all day, or are we going to get on the road?” Sharlene called out.
“Guess we’ve got some decisions to make on this trip, but I wouldn’t call it chasing dreams,” Ford said as he opened the door for Joelle.
“We’re lucky,” Joelle said as slid into the passenger’s seat and fastened her seatbelt. “At least pot is legal now, and we’re not headed for another Woodstock.”
“Woodstock!” Nita squealed. “Are they having another one? Can we squeeze it into the schedule?”
“No,” Joelle answered, “but if they were, we’d do our best to get y’all there.”
Ford settled in behind the wheel and started up the engine. The nightmares caused by what he’d endured in his Army Ranger days could very easily be replaced by the mental image of giant flowers painted on the VW bus that just might overpower him in his sleep.
“Okay, Joelle, start up the playlist,” Sharlene said and handed her niece her phone. “Sorry you kids can’t have good cold beers, but you’re on the clock as of right now, and you can’t drink on the job.”
“Playlist?” Ford asked as he drove down the lane lined with pecan trees, turned onto the highway, and headed through town. “And it’s only eight o’clock in the morning. Isn’t that early for beers?”
“It’s five o’clock somewhere.” Billy Joe laughed as he twisted the cap off his bottle.
***
“Hope you like music from the early sixties and seventies,”Joelle said as she started the playlist that she and her aunt had set up the night before.
When the first song began, Billy Joe said, “That’s The Association singing ‘Cherish.’ It came out the year we were all full of piss and vinegar, weren’t we?”
“Back then?” Nita asked. “Billy Joe, darlin’, westillare full of it.”
Joelle glanced up in the rearview mirror to see him flash a crooked smile toward his two best friends who were sitting across from him. “And we’re out to prove it.” He raised his bottle of beer. “A toast to getting to do what we always wanted to and making memories that we can talk about the rest of our lives. I just wish that Mae Ruth would have lived long enough to join us.”
Nita touched her bottle to Billy Joe’s. “To chasing our dreams. Mary Nell is watching from above, and I know that she’s real happy that you finally get to go to the dude ranch.”
“And you get to play and sing on the streets of Nashville, Nita, and Sharlene gets to lay on the beach in Florida,” Billy Joe said.
Sharlene took a drink, then clinked her bottle with the other two. “To the trip of a lifetime, and to making memories that will last forever.”
“I’m wondering if they’ve packed bikinis and if your grandpa has a Speedo in his duffel bag,” Joelle turned back toward the front and whispered.
“Now, why did you have to say that?” Ford groanedsoftly. “I won’t be able to get that picture out of my head for the rest of the day.”
Joelle laughed softly. “It’ll be gone by the time we reach the first campground tonight.”
She had known Ford her whole life. After all, he had grown up on his grandfather’s farm down the road from her aunt Sharlene’s place—sometimes she called it a farm, and other times she referred to it as her ranch—where Joelle spent the most part of every single summer. Her mama and daddy were both military people, and she’d been a military brat until she graduated from high school. But every summer she had spent several weeks on the old family farm that Sharlene still ran with a firm hand. Nowadays Joelle taught fifth grade in Prosper, Texas, which was less than an hour from Whitewright, so she still spent most weekends at the farm.
