Read Online Blame It On Texas by Kristine Rolofson - Free Book Online

after sitting at the kitchen table for so long, but she tried not to let on. Any complaint or sign of weakness would bring Martha down on her with that relentless worrying of hers. She shuffled into the sitting room, which used to be the dining room during the days when there were people to feed every day and night, and settled herself in her favorite overstuffed chair. “I like my own bed, Martha. You know I do.”
    “I know.” Martha exchanged a look with Kate, who only smiled and sat down on the old maroon sofa.
    “Your kitchen is all cleaned up, Gran,” she said. “But I’ll come out tomorrow and see what else you need to have done around here.”
    “It’s your vacation, honey. You don’t need to be working out here.” But she knew Kate would come out anyway. The girl loved to clean, alwayshad, but Gert had other plans for her granddaughter. If you wanted to write a book and your only granddaughter was a television writer, well, how lucky could an old lady be?
    “I want to,” she insisted. “You know I like to be out here. It’s a chance to get the city out of my system.”
    “But your friends—”
    “Will see plenty of me. I’m going to call Emily first thing tomorrow and see how she’s doing. Make a cleaning list, Grandma, and I’ll work my way through it.”
    “Cleaning. Now that’s a good idea.” Martha plopped on the couch and patted her daughter’s knee. “Your grandmother has never been much for throwing things away and I’ll bet there are some closets upstairs that could use a good going through.”
    “Closets,” Gert muttered. “I don’t care much about what’s in those old closets. Tell me about the show, Kate. Is that nasty redheaded nurse going to kill someone else this week?”
    Kate laughed. “I guess you’ve been watching the show. Lillian is a pretty frightening villain, isn’t she?”
    “You need a cowboy or two on that soap opera of yours, Katie.” Her granddaughter hadn’t fooled anyone with that I-hardly-know-Dustin-Jones attitude. Why, the young man could hardly take hiseyes off her the entire time they were all in the kitchen eating cake. Gert watched Kate fidget with a crocheted pillow. “Have you ever thought of that? Loves of Our Lives could use some Texan men, to show those silly women in Apple Valley what real men are like.”
    “I’ll see what I can do,” Kate promised. “The head writer might be leaving, so there could be some changes. It’s going to be a nerve-wracking summer on the show.”
    Changes. Gert wanted to tell her beloved Kate that changes were part of things, part of life. Of course, a woman could always dig in her heels and refuse to budge, or she could change right along with everything else. “How do you like my new ranch hands?”
    “Hands?” Martha repeated. “You hired someone else?”
    “The boy,” Gert sighed. Her daughter didn’t have much of a sense of humor, all things considered. Edwin sure had been funny, though, in his own way. She sure missed him, missed him teasing her about things. “Little Danny. Isn’t he something?”
    “Where do you think his mother is?” Kate asked, and Gert suspected there was more to her question than she was willing to let on.
    “Dustin didn’t say and I didn’t ask. I think Dustin said Danny was going into third grade here inthe fall,” Gert mused, wishing she knew what was going on in that girl’s head. “Why?”
    “Just wondering.”
    “He sure likes cake.” Martha looked at her watch. “We should let you get to bed, Mother. You’ve had quite a day.”
    “A good day,” Gert reminded her, but truth to tell, she was tired. But she had a few more things to discuss with the girls before they left. “Did I tell you I’m writing a book?”
    “About what?” Kate asked, sounding interested. Almost as interested as she’d been in Dustin’s boy.
    “About my life. Beauville. Texas. Everyone keeps telling me that I must have a lot of stories to tell.”
    “Oh, Lord,”