* * *
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.”
“I know. We had a taste of it over on Salt Draw, but it seems to have blown over us now that we are married. I heard there’s two ladies after Sawyer, though, and a couple of cowboys fightin’ for your hand.” Callie smiled.
“It’s not me they’re after, it’s Fiddle Creek,” Jill said and then changed the subject. “So where did you meet Finn?”
“He was a sniper and I was his spotter when we were in the military. It’s a long story that I’ll share sometime when we have more time.” Callie’s green eyes glimmered. “Maybe that’s why those feudin’ fillies left us alone. Once they found out I could shoot and wasn’t afraid to use a gun, things died down a little bit.”
“Well, shit, Sawyer. I just need to wing one of them, and they’ll leave us alone,” Jill said.
“Sounds like you’ve got the right idea.”
Jill pointed to the truck pulling up outside the store. “Speak of the devil, and me without my shotgun. Some days it don’t pay to get out of bed.”
Callie leaned over and whispered, “I’ve got a twenty-two pistol in the glove compartment of my truck. If it gets too heated, I’ll sneak out there and get it for you.”
“I do believe we are going to be more than spa buddies,” Jill whispered back.
Betsy breezed into the store, didn’t even look sideways at the two women, but went straight to Sawyer. “Hello, handsome,” she said.
“Betsy.” He nodded. “What can I do for you today?”
“Granny needs five pounds of sugar, but while we’re talkin’ about sugar, I can think of a few things you could do for me today.” She smiled up at him.
Jill peeked around the end of the aisle where she and Callie had been conspiring. “Need some chickens? Aunt Gladys has a sale on whole fryers today and tomorrow.”
“Good Lord, no! Grandma raises her own chickens. She’s pretty picky about the henhouse. It won’t be long until she has baby chicks everywhere, and then in the spring, she’ll get them ready for butcherin’ day. She’s real prone to chicken and dumplin’s, and believe me, she wouldn’t think of makin’ it with anything but her own range chickens. All I want is five pounds of sugar and a sexy cowboy to take home with me for the weekend. I’ll be gentle, Sawyer,” she flirted.
Jill picked up a bag of sugar and handed it to Betsy. Maybe if she had something to hold, she wouldn’t find an excuse to put her hands on Sawyer. After the way his kiss affected her that morning, she damn sure didn’t want another woman—Brennan, Gallagher, or even a Redding—to be getting too close to Sawyer.
Betsy told Jill to put the sugar on the River Bend account, and was reaching for the doorknob when Kinsey pushed her way inside. They reminded Jill of two stray bitch dogs circling and measuring each other up before the big fight.
“Too late, Kinsey. I’ve already branded him. He’s mine,” Betsy said.
“The war isn’t over until there’s a gold band on his finger,” Kinsey growled.
Yep, a couple of mongrel bitches. Not even purebreds, Jill thought.
“Speakin’ of war”—Betsy’s tone turned threatening—“we know you took Granny’s pigs, and you will pay for it.”
“Prove it. We didn’t start this pig war, and we won’t take the blame for it,” Kinsey said with a flip of her long hair. “Sawyer, darlin’, my grandmother sent me to buy a dozen of Gladys’s premade shish kebabs for supper tonight. Tyrell is grilling for a few of us. Oh, and a bag of sugar. She’s run out, and we’re havin’ sweet tea with lunch today.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sawyer said.
“I’ll be glad to take fourteen if you’ll come to supper with me. Big old rough cowboy like you wouldn’t be satisfied with one little shish kebab, would he? I bet he likes seconds on everything.”
Jill had never heard talk of shish kebabs sound so seductive. She rolled her eyes toward Callie and made a gun with her forefinger and thumb.
Callie took a step forward and whispered, “Sawyer best put his boots in the closet and get out some runnin’ shoes. We can always hide him out on our ranch if it gets too tough. I thought Finn was the only one who drew women and trouble to him like a magnet, but it must be all the O’Donnell cowboys.”
“You got that right, and it gets worse some times,” Jill said. “There are times when he infuriates me so much, I’d like to throw him out there for them to fight over like two old hound dogs with one ham bone between them. Then there are times when he’s so damn sweet, I’d pen them up like hound dogs and starve them to death before I let either one of them even get close to him.”
Callie laughed. “Been where you are, and don’t want to go back. Pull out your phone, woman. You need to program in my number in case the fire gets too hot and you need a place to go or someone to talk to.”
Jill nodded. “You read my mind.”
* * *
Gladys returned right after noon with a pickup load of meat to be unloaded and put away. “You mind the store, Jill. Get a cart, Sawyer. While I put one basketful away, you can fill another. We’ll get done faster that way. And then I’ll take care of the store. I want you two to go into town and go to the tag agency for me. Wallace pointed out that my pickup tag was a month overdue. I could go, but I’m plumb tuckered out, and I want to prop up my feet for a while.”
“Aunt Polly?” Jill asked.
“Verdie is still with her. They’re watching all four Lethal Weapon movies and said they wouldn’t be done until after eight. I’m supposed to bring them ice cream, popcorn, and two thick steaks at five o’clock. I guess I’m cooking. Oh, and yesterday morning a lot of folks paid their bills, so I need you go take a deposit to the bank. You can hand it to them at the drive-through, and they will give you an empty bank bag so I can start all over.”
“It won’t take both of us to do that chore,” Jill said.