Jackrabbit Junction Jitters (24 page)

Claire cringed and chugged more hard lemonade to wash away
the image of those two and Chester.

Manny rattled out a string of curses in Spanish. “I told you
to talk to them, find out what kind of men Rebecca dates. Not play house with
them.”

“Hey, I can’t help it that women find me irresistible.”

“What did you do to piss off Milly?” Claire asked.

Chester reddened slightly. “Nothing. We just played a little
game of peek-a-boo on the couch, and then she went to the laundromat to get her
clothes from the dryer.”

Claire didn’t buy his act. “So why does she want to string
you up by your testicles and bat you around like a piñata?”

Chester smiled from ear to ear. “Tilly came home while she
was gone.”

Smacking his forehead, Manny said, “Don’t tell me you used
the same couch.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault. I offered Tilly some gin and
platonic, but she insisted on a little scotch and sofa.”

“Let me guess.” Claire sat forward. “Milly walked in and
caught Tilly and you doing the Poke-a-dance.”

Straight-faced, Chester and Manny both stared at her, not
even the hint of a grin on their lips.

“What?” Claire chuckled at her own wit. “Come on, you two.
That was funny.”

“No, that was just plain lame, Claire,” Chester said.

“Is that the best you can do, chica? Your grandfather would
be so disappointed.”

“Speaking of Gramps.” Claire pointed at Gramps, who was
striding toward them with her mother hot on his heels.

Deborah was still wearing those ugly red boots. Gramps was
wearing an even uglier frown.

“Uh, oh.” Manny lowered back into his chair.

Chester murmured, “Who popped his balloon?”

Gramps stopped in front of Claire, glaring down at her. “Is
this what you call working? Lazing on your butt in the shade, drinking beer?
What do you think Ruby pays you to do all day?”

Claire sat there in stunned silence, her chin hitting the
ground. She couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d nested in front of her and
squeezed a golden egg out of his ass.

“Really, Claire.” Deborah joined Gramps’s choir. “If I didn’t
already know, I’d never even guess there was a girl under all of that dirt. You’ll
never get a gentleman smelling like that. Oh, my God, is that stubble on your
legs?”

Claire sniffed her pits, making sure her deodorant was still
fighting the battle. Maybe she still stunk like skunk juice after all.

“Cut her some slack, Deborah.” Chester defended Claire. “She’ll
wash up before Mac gets back from Tucson. Besides, some men like their women a
little hairy. It adds friction, if you know what I mean.” He waggled his
eyebrows at Claire’s mom.

While Claire appreciated Chester’s attempts to help, the
wide-eyed, horrified expression on her mother’s face confirmed that he’d only
made matters worse.

Ignoring her mother’s criticism, Claire frowned up at
Gramps. “What in the hell is your problem? You know I spent all afternoon
restacking a shitload of wood and mending that damned fence. And while I
appreciate that Ruby is helping me out financially, I’m not exactly making
union wages here.”

Gramps yanked three envelopes from his back pocket. “These
are my problem.” He tossed them at her. “How long have you known about these?
And why in the hell didn’t you tell me about them?”

Staring down at the envelopes in her lap, Claire played the
clueless card. “What are these?”

“Don’t play dumb.” Gramps reached down and flipped over the
top envelope. “You’re the only one I know who draws reading glasses on her
smiley faces and rabbit ears on her hearts.”

Claire saw the doodles she’d made while talking on the phone
to Mac. “Shit.”

“Where did you find these?” Claire looked up to find Manny
and Chester both leaning down to see what she was holding. She flipped the
envelopes over so they couldn’t see Leo M. Scott’s name, or the letters
spelling Attorney at Law.

“Your mother found them on the bar in the rec room.”

Claire fell back onto the crispy grass and stared up at the
cobalt sky, wishing the U.S.S. Enterprise would beam her up now. Ruby and Mac
were going to kill her for leaving the letters out. She’d forgotten all about
them when she’d heard that damned toilet was overflowing again.

“Well?” Gramps prompted, bending over her, his head blocking
out the sun.

“Did you read them?”

He nodded.

“Then you know as much as I do.” That was almost the truth.

“Bullshit!” Gramps squatted, his face close enough for her
to see the vein pulsing under his right eye. “Claire, I swear, if you don’t
cough up the truth right now, I’ll …”

“What?” Claire sat upright so fast they almost knocked
foreheads. “What are you going to do? Ground me? Give me a time out? Send me to
my room?”

“Maybe.”

“Here’s a novel idea.” She pushed to her feet. “Why don’t
you ask your fiancée about the letters?”

“I’m telling you, Dad. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
If Ruby’s been hiding these letters from you, what else will come out as soon
as you slip that ring on her finger?”

Claire reeled on her mother. “You need to keep your big
mouth shut! This is none of your business. This is between Gramps and Ruby.”

Deborah’s cheeks turned a mottled pink at Claire’s words. “How
dare you speak to me like that, Claire Alice!”

“How dare you speak to your father like that, Deborah Marie!”
Claire shot back.

“Claire.” Gramps warned, his tone tired. He squeezed the
bridge of his nose. “I appreciate your help, but you shouldn’t talk to your
mother that way.”

“Fine!” Claire scooped up her hat and slammed it on her
head. “From here on out, I’m done speaking to both of you.”

With a nod to the boys, she grabbed another full bottle from
the cooler, and strode away, heading for the hills.

Or maybe just the shower.

* * *

An hour later, Claire’s temper still smoldered as she minded
the store for Ruby.

“Claire, Mac’s on the phone,” Gramps called from the
kitchen.

“I’ll take it in the rec room,” Claire yelled back, turning
to Jess. “Will you watch the store?”

“For a dollar.”

Claire growled in her throat, but agreed with a nod.

Jess hopped on the stool behind the counter and proceeded to
blow grape-scented bubbles while perusing the latest teeny-bop magazine.

On the other side of the curtain, Gramps stood at the bar,
holding the cordless phone toward her.

“I thought you weren’t talking to me.”

“I’m not.” She grabbed the phone. “Starting right now.”

He snickered as he disappeared through the curtain.

“Hey, Slugger.” Mac’s voice sounded slightly tinny through
the receiver. “Why aren’t you talking to Harley?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Does it have anything to do with why he asked me what I
know about Leo Scott?”

Claire’s shoulders scrunched as she braced herself for Mac’s
anger at her stupidity. “Yes. I accidentally left those letters out on the bar
yesterday and Mom found them.”

Silence pulsed through the line for several seconds. “And I’m
sure Deborah wasted no time showing them to Harley.”

“She waited until she could catch him alone—after Ruby left
for Yuccaville and Jess was busy minding the store.”

Mac sighed. “Damn.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“You’re not to blame for this mess, Claire. We both know
Ruby should have told Harley about this as soon as she got that first letter.
If only she wasn’t so damned stubborn. Has Harley confronted her?”

“No, she’s not home yet. But he made sure to roast my ass
over the coals until it got good and crispy.”

“Is that why you’re not talking to him?”

“Something like that. Are you sure you can’t get off work a
day early and come whisk me away from here?”

“I have a lunch meeting on Friday.”

Claire grabbed a can of soda from the mini-fridge Ruby kept
behind the bar. She cracked it open and slid down the wall, stretching her tired
legs out in front of her.

“Have you found out anything more about the mine?” She kept
her voice low, just in case Gramps or Jess had their ears pressed to the
curtain.

“Yes, but it opens a door I thought I’d closed.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ruby isn’t the first owner to have someone use the courts
to try to steal the Lucky Monk away. Fifty years ago, the Copper Snake Mining
Company alleged that the mine belonged to them, stating that the then-current
owner, Levi Taylor, had a forged copy of the claim and they had the original. Unfortunately
for them, Levi fought the litigation all the way to the state supreme court,
proving in the end that the mining claim was given to him as a form of
compensation from the previous owner—an old miner who seemed to have an
addiction to poker chips.”

“If he had proof of this, why did the case go all the way to
the state supreme court?”

“My guess is that the Copper Snake was lining the pockets of
the local court justices.”

“Does this court document show who owned the Copper Snake at
that time?”

“Richard Rensberg Sr.”

“Does he still own the company?”

“No. He’s long dead.”

“Then why does ‘Rensberg’ sound familiar?”

“Because—”

“I need to talk to you.” Gramps’s voice sounded loud, like
he stood on the other side of the curtain. “Alone.”

“Hold on a minute, Mac,” Claire whispered, as footfalls
clomped across the store’s wooden floor. The clomping grew muffled on the
carpet.

“Sure, Harley,” Ruby said. “What’s got you all fired up,
honey?”

Claire covered the earpiece with her hand in case Mac
decided to get chatty. Crawling across the carpet on her knees, she peeked
around the edge of the bar.

Gramps and Ruby stood in the middle of the rec room. Ruby’s
purse still hung on her shoulder.

“Care to explain these?” Gramps held up the letters.

Claire winced, feeling like a Benedict Arnold.

A red blotch warmed Ruby’s cheek as she eyed the envelopes. “No,
I sure don’t.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about them?” Gramps’s tone was
gruff, abrasive.

Ruby lifted her chin. “Don’t you scold me like one of your
children, Harley.”

“I’m not scolding. I’m just wondering why I had to learn
about this from my daughter instead of my soon-to-be wife.”

Hands on her hips now, Ruby frowned. “I bet Deborah loved
playin’ show-and-tell with my dirty laundry.”

“Well, at least she realized that I needed to be
enlightened. Why were you hiding them from me?”

“Because they aren’t your concern.”

“Aren’t my concern?” Gramps’s shock resonated in his tone. “How
can you say that? We’re about to trade rings.”

“The Lucky Monk is my mine, Harley, not yours. I didn’t
figure you needed to know about this.”

“Yet you ran to your nephew for help. Do you know how that
makes me feel?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you spell it out?”

“Foolish and pissed off”

Hold up! Mac had offered to help Ruby only after Claire
found the letters and showed them to him. Why wasn’t Ruby clarifying that to
Gramps?

“Well, get over it,” Ruby said. “I didn’t want to burden you
with this, especially with your daughter here.”

“So what were you going to do? Wait until we were married
and then burden me with paying for a lawyer?”

Ruby took a step back, the red in her cheeks streaking down
her neck. “Is that what Deborah’s been whisperin’ in your ear all afternoon?
That I’m fixin’ to marry you for your money?”

Gramps crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you?”

“I can’t believe you’d even ask that, Harley Ford.”

“What am I supposed to think?”

“How about thinking that I’m tired of takin’ your handouts
and wanted to try to fix this mess on my own without you throwing more of your
money at it?”

That shut up Gramps for several seconds. He reached for Ruby’s
shoulder. “Listen, Ruby—”

Ruby dodged out of his reach. “Don’t you ‘Listen, Ruby’ me,
damn it. I meant what I said. This is none of your concern.” She ripped the
envelopes out of his hand. “Three days before our wedding and you have the
nerve to accuse me of marryin’ you for your money, you son-of-a-bitch.”

Claire winced again, only this time for Gramps’s sake.

“You should have told me about this,” he said in defense.

“I’ll tell you what I damned well please when I want to.”

“Mom?” Jess cruised into the rec room with her usual bouncy
step, apparently clueless that she’d walked smack dab into a tornado. “Can I
have twenty bucks? I want to buy a—”

“No, you cannot!” Ruby shouted. “Now get back behind that
register and earn your money like the rest of us have to.”

Jess looked as if her mother had slapped her. Her eyes
watered. “I’m your kid, Mother! Not your slave!” she stomped back into the
store.

As soon as Jess crossed the threshold, Ruby zeroed in on
Gramps. “I’ll tell you somethin’ else, Harley Ford. Since you like listening to
Deborah so much, she can bend your ear all night long while you share the spare
room with her, because you’re not sleeping in my bed tonight! Or tomorrow night
for that matter. Maybe ever!”

Ruby strode off down the hall, slamming her bedroom door
behind her.

“There are too many goddamned hens in this chicken coup,”
Gramps told the walls and crashed out the back door, following his fiancée’s
lead and slamming it in his wake.

Claire sat there on tingling knees that were working on
going numb, her eyes wide, the phone still in her hand.

“Claire!” Mac’s said loud enough to travel through the hand
she had cupped over the earpiece.

She started to lift the receiver to her ear and froze at the
sound of footfalls approaching again. As she watched, Deborah slipped through
the curtain, her smile stretched from ear to ear as she headed toward the stair.
Claire could hear her mom humming all the way across the room.