Between Heaven and Texas by Marie Bostwick

Author:Marie Bostwick [Bostwick, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9781611737639
Google: dncL3tmlUvgC
Amazon: 1480536148
Goodreads: 15817013
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2013-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 32

April 1984

Mary Dell was exhausted. Run-ins with her mother always wore her out and in the three weeks since Graydon Bebee had come to the ranch, battles with Taffy were a daily occurrence. Almost always, the thing they fought about was Graydon.

Today, Taffy’s tizzy came about because Graydon had fired two of their hired men. Truthfully, Mary Dell wasn’t sure of the wisdom of that move, especially so close to the start of lambing season, but Graydon was the ranch manager, and she felt she owed him her support. Too, coming down on the opposite side of any argument Taffy made was habit by now, an itch she just couldn’t keep from scratching. But it sure was tiring.

She’d gone to the big house just a little after lunch, summoned to the scene by her mother. Mary Dell didn’t want to go, she had so much to do, but knew somebody had to listen to Taffy gripe. If it wasn’t her, it would be Dutch or Graydon. Dutch had to put up with enough as it was, and Graydon had his hands full running the ranch, so Mary Dell was on deck.

It should have been a half-hour errand, but by the time they returned home to the trailer, just as the sun was setting, both she and the baby were in bad spirits.

Howard kept tugging at his left ear and fussing during exercises, cried during his bath, and he howled while Mary Dell rocked him for a full hour before finally falling asleep. By the time she tucked him into his crib, it was well after ten.

Mary Dell wasn’t feeling very good either. The ranch was at its most beautiful in spring, green leaves were sprouting and little wildflowers were popping up everywhere, so pretty, but the pollen was sure making her miserable. She went into the bathroom and searched through the cabinet for her allergy pills, an over-the-counter medication she’d discovered that seemed to work pretty well. The box of pills was empty, so she went searching through drawers, hoping to find a forgotten supply of medication or at least a reasonable substitute, locating some on Donny’s side of the cabinet. It was a prescription, but the bottle said it was for allergies and the pills looked the same, so Mary Dell took two.

She desperately wanted go into her bedroom, flop face-first onto the mattress, and sleep. Howard would be awake in another three hours, maybe less, demanding to be fed. The way he was pulling at his ear made her think he had an ear infection brewing. She’d have to call the pediatrician the next day. But before that and before she could go to bed, she had to eat something, wash the dirty dishes piled in the sink, and go through the week-long backlog of mail that was piled up on the “catchall” counter next to the microwave, the spot where the things she didn’t have time to deal with or put away landed until she did have time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.