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“Sure do.” Daisy took the little guy’s other hand, swung him around, then set him down, tickling his belly.
“M’names Tank,” he insisted, and a spray of candy drool escaped his mouth.
“That’s right, we call you Tank, don’t we buddy?” Luanne said agreeably. “Baby’s named Julianne, Daisy Mae. Julio wanted her to have both our names, so that’s what we came up with.”
They were just outside the store. “Sure is a pretty name. The baby, too,” Daisy said. Toothless and bunchy-faced, there wasn’t much pretty about the baby, especially when Luanne set the carrier in the cart. The baby started wailing, but Daisy wasn’t going to let on. Luanne picked her up, patting until she burped, and the baby spit up, right on Luanne’s shoulder.
“Whoops, this one’s on formula. My milk didn’t come in right, like it did for Tank. Sometimes the formula just doesn’t go down as easy,” Luanne explained, as the baby wails escalated.
Daisy helped Tank into the cart, buckling the seat belt so he wouldn’t flip out. Then she grabbed her own cart, and they made for the door. At the vegetable aisle, Daisy hugged Luanne. “Listen, I gotta blow through this list of stuff Daphne asked for and get on back to finish up at Ty’s.”
“Stop by sometime, Daisy, huh? I’m usually home.” Luanne said, hopeful-eyed, “Gets lonely, sometimes, with just the kids.”
“Bet it does,” Daisy agreed. She and Luanne had always been good friends, together at the 4-H shows as kids and digging into whatever trouble they could find as they got older.
When Luanne gotten pregnant right after graduation, Julio wanted to get married. Luanne had always wanted to do something with children. “I just thought it would be teaching or something, I didn’t think I’d be a mom so soon,” she’d admitted to Daisy tearfully before they’d gone out with Luanne’s mother to look at wedding dresses.
Daisy couldn’t imagine how it felt to be Luanne, home with two babies, money tight on Julio’s salary. While he’d been at the bar last Thursday with Hank, Luanne must have been home getting dinner and baths and bedtime for their little ones.
“I’ll stop by anytime you say, Lu. Your place is so pretty, I’d love to see it again, and we can play with the kids.”
“Come for dinner next Tuesday? Gives you a night to recover from rodeo. I can make a pot roast.”
“Okay, I’ll bring beer,” Daisy offered, thinking dinner at Luanne’s might get pretty noisy.
“Shall I have Julio ask Hank?” Luanne asked, hopeful.
“Oh, no, thanks. We’re not really,” she coughed, “together that way, Luanne.”
Luanne rolled her eyes.“Okay, Daisy, just you then. I’ll send Julio out, and we’ll have some fun afterward. We can watch dumb girl movies and do our nails.”
“Sounds like fun, Lu,” Daisy smiled. “You still got your DVD’s of Mystic Pizza and Dirty Dancing?”
Luanne nodded eagerly.
“See you then,” Daisy giggled. Luanne pushed her cart down the aisle, and the baby started wailing again. Lu was really amazing with her two kids, Daisy had to give her that, and she seemed happy enough. But one thing’s certain, I’m not getting strapped with a baby, no matter what happened last night.
******
Hank called Daisy Wednesday afternoon, curious for news of Gypsy up in College Station and how Lucky was getting settled in at her place. Darn it, it wasn’t just that either. He wanted to hear the sound of her voice.
He tried again that afternoon and night, but she didn’t answer. Then he tried Thursday morning and twice in the afternoon. When she didn’t answer or return his calls or even text him back, he knew something was up.
Darn it, Daisy Mae!
At three o’clock on Thursday afternoon, he drove his big white truck over to McGreer’s to find out what Daisy was trying to tell him by not talking.
Close to the main road near the sheep pasture, he saw her setting up a temporary pen. Rolling the window down, he waved, but she only stared at him narrow-eyed, like he was the doggone evil empire enemy all over again. Well, we’ve been here before.
Undeterred, he pulled into the pasture, parked close and walked towards her. She raised an eyebrow, fire in her eyes. Hands full of metal fence, she grasped for a pin and wrestled the two pieces of fence together. He took the pieces of fence from her and jammed the pins in, then hooked an arm around her waist and tugged her in for a kiss.
Their lips met for a hot second before she pulled away. “Don’t even think you’re gonna kiss me, Hank Gallagher. We didn’t use protection Tuesday night, y’know. Twice we got all crazy and didn’t use a condom. I had to borrow Daphne’s car and ride over to the Beeville clinic to pick up Plan B last night.”
His hands still on her hips, he drew in a deep breath and blew it out slow. “I wondered why you weren’t answering my texts. Sorry, Daisy. I had condoms in my wallet, I just didn’t think.”
“Sorry? Yeah, me, too.”
“You think we’re in trouble?”
