“Sorry, Mom.” He didn’t look sorry, though.
“Josie is the one you should be apologizing to,” Heather replied.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, Mrs. Everett,” Josie said with a warm smile. “After all, a man who keeps a rattlesnake for a pet can’t be expected to be very civilized with his conversation.”
John’s glare could have fried an egg. But he glanced at his mother and decided not to risk it again.
“Why would you expect the sheriff to frisk her?” Heather asked suddenly.
“Mom, I know you’ve noticed that she carries a pistol.”
“Well, yes, but she works in real estate.”
Occasionally, his mother was vague, John thought to himself, although he didn’t dare say it out loud. He just smiled and asked, “What does that mean, Mom?”
“It’s always on the news that some poor woman went alone to show a property to some man and she got, well, attacked or killed,” Heather explained.
John looked at Josie with a thoughtful expression and a gleam in his eyes that made Josie want to go across the table and batter his ears with a fork.
“I know exactly what you’re thinking, and shame on you!” Josie said to John.
Heather gave her an odd look.
She ground her teeth together. “Sorry, Mrs. Everett. I guess I’m not quite civilized, either.” But she added with downcast eyes, “At least I don’t keep a vicious reptile for a pet.”
“And imagine you being afraid of one?” John drawled.
She knew what he was insinuating; that she was a reptile, too, but she couldn’t say that. She had to grit her teeth and just smile back. “I’m not afraid of him,” she lied.
“Of course not,” he said. “That’s why I have to cover his cage with a sheet every night when you go to bed, so you won’t be terrified when you walk past my room.”
“You could, of course, close your bedroom door,” she replied.
“I live here,” he said. “You’re only visiting. Precious lives here, too. Poor old snake. He’s going to need therapy after that cattleman crashed through the glass and scared him to death trying to get away from him, and Precious wasn’t doing anything.”
“The snake is going to need therapy?” she said in a monotone.
“Well, he’s got feelings, too,” John said.
“Just before he sinks his fangs into you,” she said under her breath.
“And he doesn’t have any fangs,” John defended him. “He’s toothless.”
“Ohh, wasn’t that the cutest cartoon movie that had Toothless and he was a dragon and he had all the dragon friends, and they lived in the village and everybody was afraid of them!” Heather said instantly, trying to moderate the conversation.
“Bang, speaking of guns,” Josie began, and then clapped her hand over her mouth and blushed. She hadn’t meant to let that out. “Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry!” she said. She pointed to John, glowering. “It’s your son. He’s corrupting me.”
“I really think the corruption was already there,” John said sweetly.
“Oh, you two!” Heather sighed, getting up from the table. “The holiday season is upon us.” She looked from one of them to the other. “Peace on earth? Harmony? A time to lay down arms?”
“We’d have to remove them first,” John said through his teeth.
Josie smothered a smile just as JJ walked in the back door with Cole. They let in a breath of cold air.
“Is it getting colder outside?” John asked.
“Moderately so,” Cole replied. “And I need to ride out to the line cabin on the north border and check on Ken Bailey. His wife said he’s caught a cold now to go with his other problems.”
