The Trouble with Texas Cowboys (Burnt Boot, Texas #2)(19)

Quaid ushered her inside with a hand on her lower back, helped her remove her coat before he took his off, and handed both to an older woman who said, “Welcome to River Bend, Miz Jill. We’re glad to have you here. I’m Rita, one of the housekeepers.”

Double doors were opened into a massive room to the right where people had already gathered. The aroma of food mingled with scented candles in the middle of at least a dozen round tables with snowy white cloths. A potluck, her ass, this was a full-fledged party, even if there was every kind of food imaginable lined up on tables over there against the wall.

A tall woman with black hair and eyes almost that dark crossed the room and held out her hand to Jill. “I’m Mavis Brennan. Welcome to our little place. You should have brought Gladys with you. She and I go way back.”

“Thank you. Aunt Gladys is going back to the hospital to stay with Aunt Polly. I’ll tell her that you asked about her,” Jill said. “You have a lovely home. Everything looks and smells wonderful.”

Mavis nodded. “I love it when I can gather them all home, even if it’s only for dinner. Declan, darlin’, come meet Jill. This is Declan, my grandson. He and Leah live here with me. And please give my best to Polly. We’ll be praying that she gets along all right with this ankle. At our age, we don’t heal like you young folks do.”

Declan nodded and said something about being pleased to meet her, and then he was gone.

Quaid’s arm slipped possessively around Jill’s shoulders. “I think it’s almost time to eat. We have a place at the head table with Granny.”

“Yes, you do. I want you to sit right beside me. You tell Polly to do what they say, because if you ever sit down at our age, you wind up moldin’ and dyin’. We’ll hope to see you often here at River Bend.” Mavis smiled. “I hear you are working at the bar and the store while she’s out of commission. I’m sure you’ll see lots of Quaid at Polly’s. My husband’s old granddaddy would have had a fit if he’d known one of his kin was in a bar, but times are changing.”

Quaid tapped a water glass with a knife, and the whole room went silent. “Granny, will you say grace?”

“I’m going to ask Declan to do that for us today,” she said.

Declan bowed his head, but Jill caught the look on his face and the way he rolled his eyes before he closed them. So the Brennan family had a black sheep, and its name was Declan.

With his hand on her lower back, Quaid steered her toward the table with Mavis and half a dozen other family members. Seated between Quaid and Mavis, she felt like a heifer at the county fair. All eyes were on her, and she was expected to perform well so she’d win the big trophy and a bunch of blue ribbons.

“Jill, this is my uncle Russell. He’s Leah and Declan’s father, and they live here in the big house with Granny,” Quaid said.

Jill smiled and nodded at them. “Pleased to meet you all.”

Like Sawyer told her, she assigned animals to each face. She couldn’t think of a single animal that Mavis would resemble, with her height, her round face and thick neck, blue eyes, and black hair right out of a beauty shop bottle. She didn’t need to, because Mavis wore confidence as well as she did that tailor-made royal-blue suit and that sparkly set of wedding rings that would rival the crown jewels. She’d never forget her name.

A tall, lanky kid that hadn’t grown into his height made his way from the back of the room to their table and whispered in Mavis’s ear. She turned scarlet and slapped the table with such force that the water glasses shook.

“She’s gone too damned far,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Grandma?” Quaid said softly.

“My hogs are gone. They vanished in the damned air while we were in church this morning. Every single one of them.” Every word got louder, until she was yelling at the end and the whole room went silent.

“Maybe they got out and they’re runnin’ around on the ranch,” Quaid said.

The kid shook his head. “Daddy said to tell Miz Mavis that we checked the whole place. There isn’t a single gate open or break in the fence. There’s not even any hog footprints around the place showin’ where they got out. All we got is cattle prints. It’s like they grew wings and flew.”

Mavis was on her feet. “Russell?”

He was already pushing back his chair when he said, “You going with me, Mama?”

“Yes, I am. You will all excuse us. Please finish your food and enjoy the afternoon.” Mavis didn’t even try to lower her voice as she and Russell stormed out of the room. “That damned Naomi Gallagher will pay for this. She did it while we were all in church and the ranch was unprotected. Dammit all to hell! Well, as of right now, we’ll be standin’ guard, and she’d better watch out, because I’m not takin’ this layin’ down.”

“Is she going to be all right?” Jill asked.

“She will be,” Quaid said. “The Gallaghers shouldn’t have messed with her pigs. She doesn’t trust anyone to take care of them but Adam and his daddy. They know pigs better than anyone in these parts, except for those folks who live down in Salt Holler. Granny hates store-bought meat with a passion.”

“This is personal, and Naomi is in deep shit,” Kinsey said from the far end of the table. “Grandma is liable to jerk every hair out of Naomi’s head when she confronts her.”