The Trouble with Texas Cowboys (Burnt Boot, Texas #2)(30)

“Does it cross a river by that name, or what?” Sawyer kicked the bales when she clipped the wires.

“A big gully that gets marshy in the springtime. Aunt Gladys said before they built the bridge, it would get so muddy that the bus couldn’t get the kids for school, and the Reddings couldn’t get out for supplies. It must have been a long time ago, because that bridge looks like it was built from scraps of the Ark, and I’m talking about the one that Noah built,” she said.

Sawyer laughed out loud. “You’ll have to show me where that bridge is someday. Anything that scares you has to be pretty damn bad.”

Jill smiled. “Well, thank you! That’s the best compliment I’ve had since I got here.”

“Aww, shucks! You mean you wasn’t impressed when I told you those jeans looked better than the low-rise ones you had on that showed the strings of your thong when you bent over?”

She slapped at him, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her forward over the loose hay to hug her tightly. Her hands landed on his chest with a snap. She looked up, and before she even had time to shut her eyes, his lips were on hers. Warmth—that’s what she felt at first. As the kiss deepened, it grew hotter, and when his tongue traced the outside of her mouth, it turned downright scorching.

Her knees had no bones in them when he broke the kiss, and she was glad he kept his arms on her shoulders when he took a step back.

“Well?” he said.

“Well, what?” she gasped.

“Judgment day. Did that do more for you than either one of the rich cowboys’ kisses?” He grinned.

“To be fair, I might have to kiss them again.” She tried to control the breathlessness in her tone, but it still sounded hollow. “What about you? Did it do more for you than when you kissed Kinsey and Betsy?”

“I didn’t kiss them. They kissed me. And it wasn’t nothing like what we just shared. That flat-out made my knees go weak. I saw stars and sparkles, and even this old hay looks brighter. Hell, Jill, my mouth is going to feel warm all day after that kiss,” Sawyer said.

“You are full of shit, Sawyer O’Donnell. I believe that you invented the Blarney Stone instead of kissed it.”

*

Gladys was putting on her jacket when Sawyer and Jill reached the store. She grabbed her pickup keys and waved over her shoulder. “When Wallace gives a time for me to meet him, he doesn’t wait one minute past that, even when he’s selling a truckload of butchered hogs. He sets the time, and I always get there early and wait for him to unlock the gate. If I’m not there, he doesn’t wait around. I heard that Mavis is still steaming, and that Naomi has twenty-four-hour guards posted around her place.”

“You really think that Naomi did something with those hogs?” Sawyer asked.

“Yes, I do. She probably turned them loose in the backwoods, and we’ll have a whole raft of wild hogs sproutin’ up in another year,” Gladys answered.

“If you get stuck in the mud, holler at us, and we’ll come drag you back to civilization,” Jill yelled as the door closed.

Sawyer hung his jacket on the rack. “Is there a possibility that Gladys is buying stolen pork?”

Jill’s eyes got wider and wider, then they went back to normal size, and she shook her head. “Folks down in Salt Holler grow hogs. They don’t have cattle down in that place, and Aunt Gladys would have already thought of that. Besides, Wallace wouldn’t take a chance on the law coming to investigate.”

“Why do they call it Salt Holler, anyway? These are just little rolling hills. The valleys aren’t big enough to call them a holler by any means,” Sawyer wondered aloud.

“Aunt Gladys told me that the ‘salt’ part of it is because those folks salt-cure the pork, and the ‘holler’ has little to do with the land but the fact that it’s not really very big. You can holler on one end, and they can hear it on the other.”

“How long has it been there?”

“Have to ask Aunt Gladys about that, unless you want to sneak past the guards and ask Naomi Gallagher. I hear she’s got distant relatives down there even yet, so she might know.”

“I think I’ll stay on this side of the fence and kiss you rather than talk to one side of the feuding family about pigs.”

She couldn’t think of a single smart-ass remark, and the blush was still faint two minutes later when a dark-haired lady that looked vaguely familiar pushed her way into the store.

“Hi, Sawyer. How’s the foreman business goin’? I heard it extended out to store-keepin’ and bartendin’,” she said.

“Looks like it.” Sawyer made introductions. “Jill, meet my cousin-in-law Callie. She and my cousin Finn live over on Salt Draw. You might have seen them in church last Sunday.”

Callie smiled. “We’re the ones with the line of kids on the pew with Verdie.”

“Cute bunch of kids. How long have you been in Burnt Boot?” Jill asked.

Callie started putting items into a cart. “Only since the first of December. I understand you aren’t really new to the area, just returning to it. When you have time, give me a call, and we’ll sneak away for a girls’ afternoon. Maybe a pedicure and coffee if we can’t squeeze anything else in.”

“That sounds like fun. I’ve visited, but never lived here until now, and I got to admit, walking into a feud isn’t what I had in mind.”