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Everything’s proceeding right on schedule. Well...maybe a little slower than on schedule. But I have high hopes. Just a few more experiments and I should have Mom and Ty right where I want them. Married and living happily ever after.
Chapter Eight
Experiment #8:Writing this one up ahead of time. Haven’t finished with experiment seven yet, but this is it! Time is runningout.
Goal:Mom needs to tell Ty everything. Idon’t think he knows she has a secret. Heck, she didn’t even squeal to me about it. Not that she had to. Ifigured it out a long time ago. But I think she’s afraid to tell Ty. Afraid he won’t loveher.
Procedure:Slip the letter that came for her today into her suitcase without her seeing.
“Hey, boy,”Ty said quietly. “Nice snake.”
Startled, Hutch looked up, aguilty expression creeping across his face. “I found it,” he said, moving to hide the reptile behindhim.
“Whoa there! Don’t do that.” Ty spoke more sharply than he’d intended and fought to moderate his voice. “Hutch, listen to me. Iwant you to put the snake down. Nice and easy.”
“It’s just a longnose.” He held out his hands, allowing the snake to wriggle from one palm to the other. “I found it on a rock. Ithink it was after some sun cuz it’s so cold this morning. Did you know that a longnose—”
“You can tell me all about it after you put it down,” Ty interrupted with an edge of desperation.
Cassidy joined them, flinching back when she saw what Hutch was holding. “Oh, yuck! Why did you pick that up? You know how much I hate snakes.”
Hutch’s gaze skittered away. “Longnoses are really interesting, Mom. And pretty. Iwanted to study him for a bit before letting him go.”
Ty glanced at the barn and saw a few of his wranglers headed toward them. If he couldn’t convince the boy to get rid of the snake fast, all hell would break loose and someone would end up on the wrong side of a set of fangs. “Hutch, listen carefully. If you don’t put the snake down right this second, I’m going to start talking to your mom about caliper switches and eviction notices.”
It worked like a charm. Hutch tossed the snake aside. The closest wrangler saw it, let out a holler and began stomping his 13D Justin mule hides all over the fleeing reptile. With loud shouts, the others followed suit. Ty grabbed Cassidy and her son and hustled them from the scene of the massacre.
“Did you see what they did?” Hutch demanded indignantly. “Why didn’t you make them stop?”
“Because if they hadn’t killed it, Iwould have. That was no longnose, boy.”
“Not a—” Hutch skittered to a halt, his face paling. “That was a coral snake? Ithought they were nocturnal.”
“They’re poisonous, aren’t they?” Cassidy asked uneasily.
Hutch nodded vigorously. “They’re a member of the cobra family. And I actually picked one up. Cool! Heck, if it had bitten me, I’d probably be—”
Ty caught the boy in a bear hug, effectively muffling what he’d been about to say. “Sorry. You’d have been real sorry. No harm done, Cassidy.” She didn’t look terribly convinced. He strove to sound casual and came close enough to pass muster if no one was listening too carefully. “Hey, would you mind rustling up some more coffee? I’m afraid I spilled mine.”
“But the snake...?”
He risked a quick glance over his shoulder. “Not likely to bother anyone any time soon.” He made a mental note to make sure the few grisly pieces the wranglers had left behind were cleaned up before Cassidy returned. Fortunately, she didn’t realize how bad the situation might have been if corals weren’t so docile or if this particular one hadn’t been fresh out of hibernation and too cold to kick up a fuss at being handled. If she’d known, she and the boy would undoubtedly be packed and gone within the hour. “Er... the coffee?”
“Okay,” Cassidy said with a shrug. “I’ll get it.”
“Thanks.” The instant she disappeared inside, Ty confronted Hutch. “You’ve really done it this time, boy. I’d talk fast, if I were you.”
“I didn’t know it was a coral. Honest.”
“Kid, you know everything. How could you not know that? You must have heard the expression, ‘Red and yellow, kill a fellow. Red and black, can’t hurt Jack.’ If the red and yellow bands are together, keep away from it. Got it?”
Hutch nodded. “Sorry, Ty. Ididn’t mean to scare you.”
“Well, you did. If anything had happened to you...” Ty’s jaw worked for a moment. “I would’ve had a hell of a time getting your mom to lay off the waterworks,” he finished gruffly.
“Yeah. She would’ve been upset.” Hutch hesitated. “Lonnie wouldn’t have been, though.”
Ty frowned. Where the hell had that come from? “Now why would you say such a thing?”
