Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(16)

“What’s allitude?” Tina asked.

“It’s what that yellow kitten has. Like when he walks all sideways and puffed up and then jumps on his brother. That’s attitude,” Sophie said.

“OK, then my lellow cat is Chief. I’m goin’ to go find him and tell him. Momma, does Eli walk all sideways and jump out to scare Sophie?” Tina jumped down and ran out the back door before Fancy could answer.

“So tell me, why did me calling him chief set you off into a fit of laughter?” Kate asked.

Sophie downed half a glass of iced tea before she answered. “We had this big argument when I called him chief. He doesn’t like to be teased about his heritage any more than I do about my Irish heritage. So we came to an understanding real quick. Now that’s enough about me and my business partner.”

“But not about you and your love life. When are you going to start dating? It’s been almost two years. We’ve all been back in the area a year now, and Kate and I have already gotten our three magic words to come true. You haven’t even made an effort. It’s time, or else you’re goin’ to be an old, crazy ranch woman who hates men,” Fancy said.

“What’s so bad about that?” Sophie asked.

“You’ve got six months to get things straightened out. This is August. If you haven’t been on a date by New Year’s, then me and Fancy get to fix you up. You can go with me to the Ducaine family reunion. There’s always good-lookin’ cowboys at it,” Kate said.

“I can find my own dates when I’m ready,” Sophie protested.

“New Year’s and then we’re parading them through here at the rate of two every weekend. I get to pick one for Friday night, and Kate comes up with a Saturday date. Then on Sunday we’ll have a full report. Conversation, food, and whether they were good kissers,” Fancy told her.

Sophie’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t!”

“Oh, honey, we definitely would,” Kate giggled.



Normally Elijah loved what quiet and solitude he could carve out of a day. But that Sunday afternoon, the silence was deafening. He roamed from one room to the other, sat on the deck, and watched the cows grazing beyond the yard fence. He ate a bowl of ice cream topped with chocolate syrup and pecans.

Finally, he got into his truck and drove five miles south into Baird. He’d thought about a cycle ride, but the heat was even more oppressive than it had been the day of Maud’s funeral. Baird was an old cattle-drive town built back during the late 1800s. The three-block main street in town dead-ended at the railroad depot, which had been rebuilt in the last few years.

Elijah turned and drove slowly down the length of the place, looking at the buildings. What started out as thriving businesses had dried up one by one and sat empty, until a few antique stores breathed some life back into the town. Just like he remembered, the street was very wide with diagonal parking on either side.

He wished that the old, restored 1911 Texas & Pacific Railroad Depot was open, so he could spend an hour or so looking around in the museum located there. Maybe take a trip through the gift store or browse through the brochures in the visitor center. But it was closed on Sunday.

He parked out front and rolled down the window for a better look at the place. Heat rushed inside and sucked the air right out of his lungs. He pushed the button and rolled the window back up in a hurry. The flag out front hung limp. There wasn’t a whisper of a breeze that hot August day, but then that was normal central Texas weather. Uncle Jesse said the wind blew every day until June first. Then it stopped, and you couldn’t beg, borrow, buy, or steal a breeze until after Labor Day. Elijah smiled at the memory of Jesse sitting on the porch with a glass of sweet tea and saying those words.

He turned the Ford truck around and drove it back through town, past the courthouse, and on to the Dairy Queen. He parked out front and hurried inside, appreciating the cold air that greeted him. It was hot enough that he’d broken a sweat walking across twenty feet of parking lot. He ordered a large Dr Pepper and a hot fudge sundae and looked around for a place to sit.

“Hey, Eli, what’re you doin’ out in this heat?” Hart Ducaine called from a corner booth. “Bring that on over here and sit with me.”

Elijah carried his sundae in one hand and the drink in the other and made his way to the booth. “What are you doin’ out in the heat?” he asked Hart.

“Same thing you are probably. Got work that I could do, but it’s hot and it’s Sunday, so I can use that for an excuse not to do it. Got bored at home so I went for a drive and wound up down here. Thought I might drop by your place and get a preview of whatever cattle you might be thinkin’ about sellin’ at the sale next month. That way I’d know ahead of time if I could outbid that Australian feller that’s been comin’ around the last few years.”

Eli dipped into the sundae. “You want something to eat?”

“No, I done already had a banana split and a Coke.”

“Let me finish this and we’ll go on out to the ranch, and you can take a look at the cattle. I haven’t decided yet which ones will go to the sale. Sophie has to agree, and that’s a helluva problem,” he said.

Hart grinned. Like Elijah, he was over six feet tall. He had blond hair and light green eyes, and wore faded jeans and a T-shirt with a picture of a bull on the front. He’d followed the Pro Rodeo circuit for several years and won enough money to keep his ranch afloat for many years ahead. He and Kate had married in the spring, and from the get-go she’d insisted that Sunday afternoons belonged to her and her two friends. Most of the time, he didn’t mind when there was a rodeo on television or even football or basketball. But that day the house was silent as a tomb.