Read Online Texas Heroes: Volume 1 by Jean Brashear - Free Book Online

“Yes?”
    Fiftyish and tanned from long hours in the sun, the man grinned a craggy smile. “I’m Jim Caskey, ma’am. I’m the foreman around here.”
    “I’m Maddie Collins. Pleased to meet you.”
    “Same here.” He shifted on his feet but didn’t speak again. He studied the ground.
    “Is there something you need, Mr. Caskey?”
    His head jerked up. “What? Oh—no, no. Nice day, don’t you think?”
    Maddie resisted the urge to laugh. One of the hardest things to get used to was the pace of life around here. Conversations moved as slowly as everything else. But she was learning. She scanned the sky. “Yes, it is. Hot, though.”
    He looked relieved, as though they’d discovered a common language. “Don’t think it’ll rain. Prob’ly tonight, though. My knee always knows.”
    “Your knee?”
    “Yes, ma’am. I got this trick knee from when I rode bulls and it’s better than that radar they got over in Abilene.”
    “Really?” She pinched her thigh so the pain would keep her face straight. “It never misses?”
    He shook his head. “Purt’ near perfect record.”
    “Wow. That’s amazing.” They stood in silence for a long moment. “Can I help you with something, Mr. Caskey?”
    “Please call me Jim, ma’am. Mr. Caskey’s my dad.”
    “Okay—Jim. Do you think you could call me Maddie? Ma’am makes me feel as if I could be your mother.”
    His face creased in a wide grin, his eyes sparkling. “Oh, trust me, ma’am—uh, Maddie. My mother never looked anything like you. Fact is, me and Sonny, we can’t help noticin’—”
    “Sonny is the other gentleman who works with you?”
    “Yes, ma’am—uh, Maddie. But he’s married, too.” Jim’s eyes lost their sparkle. “I mean, his wife’s real nice and all, just that you should know…”
    Maddie wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep her face straight. If there was a point to this conversation, she wondered if they’d reach it today. “I understand, Jim. I’ll try to keep my hands to myself.”
    The man looked honestly horrified. “Oh, I never meant that you would—” His face went redder than the tomatoes beside her. He cleared his throat. “Actually, it’s just that I noticed—well, me and Sonny noticed that you sure seem to like this garden. Seems odd for a city girl.”
    Maddie resisted a sigh of frustration. “It’s a treat to take food straight off the plant instead of the grocery shelves.”
    “Well, my Velda’s got peach trees and I brought you some of her peaches, if you think you’d like them. But if you don’t, that’s all right.”
    “Fresh peaches?” Maddie’s heart thumped.
    “Picked this morning.”
    “Oh, Jim, that’s wonderful!” Maddie hugged a fistful of beans to her breast. “I may faint from pleasure.”
    He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Aw, please don’t do that. I’d have to catch you and then Boone would get all mad and Velda would skin and gut me…it wouldn’t hardly be worth it.”
    Maddie did laugh then. “Velda is your wife?”
    “Thirty-four years.”
    “That’s wonderful. How romantic.”
    “Well, now.” He shuffled again. “Velda don’t think I’m very romantic.”
    “Staying with the same woman for thirty-four years sounds pretty romantic to me, Jim. Especially since your voice tells me you love her.”
    He reddened once more. “Well, I, uh—sure I do.” Then he glanced up, assessing. “You’re not like Helen at all.”
    “Helen?”
    “Boone’s wife.”
    Maddie couldn’t contain her shock. “Boone has a wife?”
    “She’s dead. Died a couple of years back.”
    “I’m so sorry.” That explained the shadows. “Boone must have been devastated.”
    Jim’s voice went flat. “He was. But she hated this place.”
    Maddie frowned.
    “She was a fancy woman, a city girl like you. But she never tried to like it. Between her and Sam, they made Boone’s life hell.”
    “What happened to her?”
    Jim’s eyes narrowed, his jaw hard.