Read Online I Love This Bar by Carolyn Brown - Free Book Online Page A

either be sewn up, bones set, or put to sleep. She hoped it wasn't the latter; she still got misty-eyed when she had to put an animal down.
       "You didn't even ask who was here. You got a death wish or something?" Jarod asked.
       "What do you want? And it's none of your business what I do."
       "Uncle Emmett left his wallet on the table back there. I told him you'd find it and I'd come back tomorrow but he can't sleep until it's safe in his hands. I asked him what was in it and he said Aunt Mavis' picture when she was a young woman."
       "Well, come on in and find it," she said.
       Jarod went straight for the table. The wallet had been kicked back against the wall. He held it up for Daisy to see. He damned sure didn't want her to think he'd invented an excuse to come back to see her that late. He'd tried every argument in the world to keep from driving fifteen miles back to the Honky Tonk at two thirty in the morning. He'd been sound asleep when he heard Uncle Emmett yelling at him from the bottom of the stairs. He'd thought the old guy was sick or had fallen. Adrenaline had shot through his veins like lightning and he didn't even remember how he'd gotten to the living room, but he could have strangled Uncle Emmett when he heard what the commotion was all about.
       "Can't sleep so I wanted to talk to Mavis and when I do I look at that picture. It's at the Honky Tonk. You go get it right now," Emmett had said.
       "I can't go back there now. The place closes at two o'clock. Besides, that bartender will find it and put it up for you," Jarod had argued.
       "Daisy isn't just a bartender, boy. She's a fine woman. Why, one time your Aunt Mavis even said that she'd make you a wonderful wife. You could do a hell of a lot worse in this world than Daisy O'Dell."
       "I wasn't being snide or condescending."
       "That ain't what I heard. I heard you say 'bartender' like it was dirty."
       When he'd exhausted every excuse in the world, he'd dressed and gone to retrieve the wallet. Now he felt pretty stupid standing there with it in his hands.
       "Lock the door and ask who's there before you answer it," he said.
       "Don't tell me what to do."
       "You aren't big enough to stop someone from hurting you."
       "Good night, Mr. McElroy."
       She'd no more locked the door and started back across the dance floor when he knocked hard again. She slung the door open. "This is not funny."
       "You need to ask."
       "You need to mind your own business."
       "What if I'd been drunk and rushed inside to hurt you?"
       "Try it," she said.
       He took two steps forward only to find a sawed off shotgun pressed firmly in his ribs. He held up his hands in surrender, his left one still holding Emmett's wallet.
       "How'd you do that?"
       "I told you not to worry. I can take care of myself. Just remember that it's loaded at all times. Permit to have it is posted right beside my license behind the bar. And I'm not one bit afraid to use it."
       "Did you ever have to?" he asked.
       Not only was Daisy full of sass, she was brassy as hell.
       "Not at the Honky Tonk. Now go on home and take Emmett his picture. Bar is closed at two o'clock and I'm too tired to play these games with you," she said.
       "What'd you mean, not at the Honky Tonk?" he asked.
       "That's my business. Good night, Jarod." She shoved him out the door and locked it behind him.
       She went back into the apartment and poured a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal.
       Lucky.
       Charms.
       Two words she didn't really believe in. A person made their own destiny. Their choices brought their consequences. Luck was a figment of someone's imagination. Charm? Well, some folks had it. She, like Emmett, did not.
       She'd always figured that she'd used up her share of luck when she landed at the Honky Tonk. And she'd never been accused of having much charm. That was her mother's claim to fame. So