The Old Man's Back in Town by Ann Charles

Author:Ann Charles
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Humour, Fiction, Romance, Holidays, Christmas
ISBN: 9781940364056
Publisher: Ann Charles
Published: 2013-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

Goldwash, Nevada

December 24th

O holy night!

The stars are brightly shining…

“Would you turn off that Christmas crap and help me clean up all this …” A déjà vu gave me pause in the midst of throwing a wet rag at my cousin Buffalo, who nursed a mug of beer at the end of the bar.

Buffalo frowned at me over his glass. “Jeez, Montana, can’t you let a man enjoy a nostalgic moment? Where’s your—”

“Holiday spirit?” I finished for him, feeling like I was rehearsing for a play I knew from memory. Something was supposed to come next about Brunhilda, Buffalo’s fat bulldog, who lay splayed on her belly next to his bar stool snoring, but I changed it up. “I lost it when Joel left town.”

The bastard broke my heart and months later it still sat like a cold, cracked piece of granite in my chest.

I dragged a bucket of sudsy, ammonia-smelling water around to the front of the bar, pulling the stools out on each side of Buffalo, only to realize there wasn’t anything to mop up, except peanut shells. Hadn’t something been spilled here? Weird.

“I’m closing the bar early tonight,” I told Buffalo. “You want to come back to my place and hang out for a while? Watch a movie? I think the Western channel is having a Clint Eastwood marathon.”

Buffalo wiped the beer foam moustache from his upper lip. “Sure, if you don’t mind me bringing Brunhilda. I hate to leave her alone on Christmas Eve.”

“Are you afraid she’ll actually wake up this year for Christmas?” His dog stirred only long enough to snarfle down food, I swore.

He grinned and reached down to scratch Brunhilda’s head between her fake reindeer antlers. “She’ll perk up. Santa brought her a special bone.”

Brunhilda’s ears twitched at the word bone, but that was the only sign of life.

“I’m not interfering with any plans with your girlfriend, am I?” I asked.

“Didn’t you hear? We split up. She’s knocking boots with my neighbor now.”

“Oh.” How had I missed that in this one-horse town? I really needed to get my head out of the sand and get back to living. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He waved me off. “He has pigs. Her constant squealing doesn’t faze him.”

That made me smile. “Do you think you’ll ever find a nice woman, settle down, raise a couple of baby buffalos? You’re not getting any younger, you know.” Buffalo had two years on my thirty-six.

“Nope. I’ve told you my thoughts about monogamy and matrimony too many times to count.”

“What happened with your parents isn’t genetic, you know. Marriages don’t have to involve flying cast iron skillets and burning pickups. Look at my parents. They were married for almost forty years.” And then Momma got sick and all of our lives went to hell in a handcart.

Buffalo slurped his beer. “Yeah, well you’re not setting the best example for happily ever after. First, you shacked up with a three-timin’ rodeo clown, then you married a killer, and then you hooked up with Joel Andersen, of all guys.

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