Too Soon to Die by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2019-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 36

Denny found Brad sitting on the front steps. He held his clasp knife in one hand and a piece of wood that had been carved on in the other, but he wasn’t doing any actual whittling at the moment. He just stared straight ahead with a gloomy expression on his face.

He looked over, though, when Denny sat down beside him. “Is Sally going to die?”

“I don’t think so.” Denny thought about it and realized she wasn’t just trying to be encouraging; she really didn’t believe that the sickness would claim her mother. To think of her dying was just inconceivable. “She’s really strong, and you heard the doctor say that was a good thing. She’ll fight off whatever it is that’s ailing her, I’m sure of that.”

“I hope so. I haven’t even known her that long.” Brad was trying not to sniffle. “Do you think she’d mind . . . if I called her Grandma? Smoke said I could call him Grandpa.”

Even under the circumstances, just the thought of calling Smoke and Sally Jensen Grandpa and Grandma almost made Denny laugh. They were such vital people that they seemed much younger than their actual years. And yet it was true that Brad was their step-grandson, and it was entirely possible, even likely, that there would be grandchildren-by-blood in the Jensen family in the not so distant future. Melanie was young enough that she and Louis could have a whole passel of sons and daughters.

The likelihood of her presenting any grandbabies to her parents was a lot smaller, Denny mused.

In answer to Brad’s question, she said, “You’ll have to wait and ask her about that once she gets better, but I really don’t think she’ll mind.”

“Okay. I’ll do that.”

She nudged his shoulder with an elbow. “Want to practice some with your lasso?”

“I’m getting pretty good at it.” A faint smile curved Brad’s lips. “Maybe better than you.”

Denny laughed. “I don’t think so! Come on.”

As Brad got the rope he’d been using, built a loop, and started trying to drop it over a fence post, Denny reflected on the notion that had crossed her mind a few minutes earlier. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to ever have children, but doing so required somebody to be the father, and Denny didn’t see anybody who fit that description on the horizon at the moment.

Her thoughts went back to the night of the social. While she had cleaned some of the blood off his face, Steve Markham sat there for a few minutes, breathing hard as he tried to recover from the battle with Brice Rogers. Then he had reached up, closed his hand around the wrist of the hand holding the cloth, and lifted his eyes to hers.

* * *

“You don’t have to do that, Denny,” he said. “I don’t reckon I deserve to have a gal like you takin’ care of me, after all the trouble I’ve caused.”

“You didn’t start it,” she pointed out. Then she shrugged a little and added,

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