Holidays on the Ranch (Burnt Boot, Texas #1)(6)

“We pay by the tenth of each month, right?” Finn asked.

“That’s the way I do business with lots of folks around this area. I been doin’ the same with Salt Draw for years. Long as it gets paid by the tenth, I’m okay with it. What do you need?” Gladys asked.

“Staples mainly. Looks like the pantry and freezer are both full, but the refrigerator is empty. Starting with butter, cheese, and mayonnaise,” Callie said.

After the mega-sized supermarkets she was used to shopping in, the little store made her feel like she’d taken a step backward in time. The last time she’d been in a store like this was out around the Palo Duro Canyon area. She had been five or six years old, and her mother had taken her along into a small town on a Saturday for supplies when they’d gone to visit her grandparents.

Gladys tapped the counter beside the cash register. “First thing you’ll need is a cart. And what’s your name, son?”

“I’m Martin Brewster.” He stepped forward and stuck out his hand.

Gladys shook it. “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance. Will you be going to school here?”

“Yes, ma’am. I suppose I will.”

“I’ll have to call Verdie later and tell her there’s a boy living on the ranch. She’d like that,” Gladys said. “I still have trouble believing Verdie is gone. She hung on to that ranch until the very end, hoping one of them grandkids of hers would want it. But kids these days, they want instant gratification and they want to live in the big cities where the fun is at. They don’t want to work their fingers to the bone on a ranch.”

Callie pushed the cart and Finn helped her fill the list she’d made on the way to the store.

Gladys talked nonstop. “She really got pissed at her grandkids when not a one of them offered to let her live with them or even near them. She checked herself into one of them fancy retirement homes in Dallas. Says she hopes she lives long enough to eat up every dime of the money. And if she don’t, she’s leavin’ what’s left to a ranch out in west Texas that takes in old jackasses that need a place to finish up their lives. She says they can put in a second home for aging donkeys right here in Burnt Boot. I hear from her nearly every day and she’s not happy at that place. Been a month now and she’s still not settled into it.”

Callie put two gallons of milk into the cart. “What about her kids?”

Gladys tossed in a can of black pepper. “Had two boys. Both dead. One left three kids. The other one had four by three different women. Finn, have the Brennan women and the Gallagher gals come sniffin’ around Salt Draw?”

“Who?” He picked up two packages of chocolate cookies and added them to the cart. “You mean the feuding families? Why would they come to Salt Draw?”

Callie laughed nervously.

“What’s so funny?” Finn asked.

“Can I have bananas?” Martin asked.

Finn picked up a brown paper bag and filled it with bananas.

“Feuding families? Women? I’m wondering which one of us is going to be doing the protecting,” she said.

“Feud? I thought Verdie was teasing.” Finn’s hand brushed Callie’s as they both reached for the bread at the same time.

“I don’t think so,” Gladys said.

“Like Hatfields & McCoys? Callie wouldn’t let me watch it. She said it was too violent,” Martin said.

“Something like that,” Gladys said. “The Gallaghers own the Wild Horse Ranch over to one side of my property. The Brennans own the River Bend over on the other side. Been feudin’ since right after Moses led the people to the Promised Land, and they jump on any chance to fan the flames of the old feud. Besides, they both tried to buy Salt Draw from Verdie and she wouldn’t sell to them. It’d be a feather in the feud cap if either one of them could get Finn to sell out to them, or better yet if they could get it with a marriage license. Y’all goin’ to church tomorrow?”

“Thought we might,” Callie said.

“Well, sit in the middle aisle. The Brennans sit on one side and the Gallaghers on the other. The middle is neutral and sittin’ on either of their sides means you’re takin’ up with that bunch against the other one,” Gladys said. “This store, church, and my sister-in-law Polly’s beer joint are the only places they are even civil to each other. They each got their own private school on their ranches, so they don’t send their kids to the little public school here in Burnt Boot.”

“Good grief, they really are modern-day Hatfields and McCoys.” Callie laughed.

“Oh, honey, they make the Hatfield and McCoy families look right tame. Story has it that, back in the twenties, times got real tough here in Burnt Boot. So old man Gallagher set up a moonshine still down close to the Red River. He was making a fair livin’, keepin’ his family alive and the bill paid here at the store. That was back when my husband’s daddy had the store and the ranch. Anyway, the feds showed up one night and smashed up his still, carried him off to prison, and made him serve a year for bootleggin’. The Brennans were a religious lot, what with old Grandpa Brennan preachin’ at church when the minister needed a fill-in.” Gladys stopped beside the meat counter. “Don’t suppose you need anything from here.”

Callie nodded. “Everything is frozen at the house. Give me a pound of hamburger, and I’ll make cowboy hash for supper.”