“It will wash. He’s a very clean animal.”
Heather rolled her eyes. They landed on the slight, red-headed, green-eyed woman beside John. “Who’s this?” she asked.
Josie started to answer but John beat her to it.
“Josie Blake,” he said. “She was trying to cut up one of my purebred steers for a steak. She says she’s starving.”
Josie felt embarrassed. “I was just hungry...” she began, eyes downcast as she tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t evoke such kind sympathy from those pale blue eyes.
“Then we’ll feed you,” Heather said gently. “Come on in. I’ll get Mercedes to cook you a nice steak. John, take that... thing... to your room. Right now!”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and grinned at her. “Thanks, Mom.”
“God knows what your father will say,” she mumbled. “He’ll probably hear it rattle in the night and get up and shoot it.”
“No. He knows about Precious.”
She sighed. “Then I expect people in other countries know about Precious by now,” she said under her breath. “Mercedes,” she called as she led Josie into the dining room. “We have a guest!”
Josie ate her steak with pure delight. It was as good as one of her dad’s, and he had prime steaks on his ranch.
But having that sweet woman Heather look at her with sad eyes didn’t make Josie feel much better. She was putting on a false front. It didn’t usually bother her. But in the course of her job, she mostly came across rough men, not kind women who would take in a vagrant and feed her. Guilt was eating her alive. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t have afforded the best steak a restaurant had to offer. But she was playing a part. Not playing it all the time could cost her her life.
She finished the delicious steak along with the perfect mashed potatoes and green beans and the apple pie dessert.
“I’m so full,” she said, smiling at Heather. “Thank you. I was really starving or I’d never had bothered his prize bulls.”
“Bull calves,” Heather corrected. “And John was raised to help people.”
“John?” She tried to sound nonchalant, but the man was very attractive to her.
“Yes. John Everett. He’s our youngest son. The eldest, like our only daughter, is married and away from home. Although Tanner and his wife live nearby and visit often. She’s pregnant right now, though, and having some minor issues, so she’s not very mobile. So we mostly go to see them.”
“Three children?”
She nodded, smiling. “I wanted more, but three sounded like a good number to both of us.”
“I like children,” Josie said involuntarily. “I used to work with underprivileged Hispanic kids...” She stopped abruptly. She was giving away too much.
“Then you’re bilingual.” Heather nodded.
Josie looked up. The woman was quick. She made lightning assumptions and she was correct. Josie smiled. “Yes. You’re quick,” she added.
Heather just nodded. “You pick it up when you have children who don’t like to tell you what they’ve been up to.”
Josie laughed. She looked like a different person when she did that. Heather found her very interesting. She wondered if John did...
Two
John thanked the cowboys who’d done a very quick but efficient job in building a cage for John’s pet—right down to adding shredded newspaper litter, a big bowl of water, sun spectrum lighting overhead, a heating unit under one part of the huge cage and even some smooth wood for the snake to climb on. There was also a very prominent locking mechanism. With a padlock.
“He can’t pick a lock,” John muttered.
“It was your mother’s idea,” one commented with a grin. “Nobody argues with the boss’s wife, you know.”
He laughed. “No. Nobody does. Thanks, guys.”
“Don’t mention it. But a little bonus...”
