Being back at work was good for Rosa’s soul. The lunch hour was busy, but not crazy like when the cowboys were in town, and she didn’t have time to worry about anything…well, not much, anyways. She was a little worried with Ariana out of her sight even though she trusted Nate and Angel with her life, and she was a little worried about Grant since it sounded like his trip was serious and intense, but he hadn’t given her much more information than that it had to do with his family. She added a prayer for him during her morning prayer in addition to prayers for her mother and father’s souls, her daughter, and the souls of all the good people that had helped her in her life. Rosa smiled when she found Grant’s note for her and Ariana, and she’d tucked it into her pocket and took it out several times throughout the day to look at it. She knew she was acting like a silly teenager with a crush, but she’d never had a crush before so she didn’t really know how to act.
“Hey, Rosa, can I get another iced tea?”
Billy was playing pool with Molly Treager. Molly was dressed conservatively today—at least for her. It usually seemed like her clothes were doing everything in their power to keep her voluptuous figure contained but were hard-pressed to do so. Rosa hadn’t figured out yet exactly what the Treagers did for a living. As far as she knew, all six girls still lived way up on the mountain with their parents. None of them were married and as far as she knew, none of them had a boyfriend—unless, of course, the rumors about Cade and Bobbie were true.
“Sure, Billy. Molly, you want a refill?”
“Sure, babe, I’d love one and maybe you could ask your grumpy old boss to fix me a grilled cheese on rye?”
Rosa smiled. She hadn’t noticed Mickey being grumpy. He definitely had his moments, but today he seemed on a pretty even keel. “Of course.”
She took their glasses and while she was filling them she stuck her head in the back and said, “Mickey, can I have a grilled cheese on rye?”
“Long as it ain’t for that Molly Treager.”
Rosa put the iced teas down and went into the kitchen. “So, what’s going on with you and Molly?”
“That girl just comes in here whenever she wants acting like she owns this place. I’m sick of it, that’s all.”
“Did you say something about Cade and Bobbie in front of her?”
Mickey’s guilty face gave him away before he said anything. “I didn’t say it to her…she just happened to walk in and over hear a private conversation.”
Rosa shook her head at the gossipy older man. “Don’t you think she’d want to defend her sister?”
“I just don’t understand what all the secrecy is about. They’re both adults and neither of them are married…”
“And that’s the point, Mickey. They’re both adults and it’s their business. If they want to keep it a secret, then they should be able to. You know pissing off Molly’s not going to be half as bad as pissing off Cade.”
Mickey rolled his eyes and puffed out his chest. “Whatever. I’ll make her damned sandwich.”
Rosa took the iced teas and left the kitchen with a small smile. She took them over to Nate and Molly. “Thank you, baby,” Molly said as she took hers off the tray.
“Thanks, Rosa,” Billy said with a nod.
“You’re welcome. I’m sorry you have to spend your whole day here with me. I’m sure you have lots of other things you’d like to be doing.”
“Nope, not at all. If I wasn’t here I’d probably just be home sleeping and getting fatter,” Billy said, patting his taut belly.
Rosa smiled. Billy Joe was a huge guy but she’d bet money that he had less than 10% body fat. He was one of those guys that seemed like he was born with natural muscle tone and didn’t have to work too hard to maintain it.
“Besides,” Molly said, “he gets to spend the day shooting pool with me. I’ve been trying to talk these boys into adding me to their team. They have no idea what I could bring to it.”
“Oh, I’m sure you could bring a lot to it,” Billy said with a wink, “but Cade’s the one you have to talk into it.”
“Hey, Molly, do you shoot?” Rosa asked curiously.
“Baby, I can shoot a fly off your nose at a hundred yards.”
Billy choked on his tea and gave her a look of disbelief.
“What? You don’t believe me? My daddy taught me to shoot when I was four years old.”
“Oh, wow,” Rosa said. She couldn’t imagine Ariana handling a gun at her age. Her motor skills weren’t even fully developed yet.
“Don’t think poorly of him,” Molly said. “Life up on that mountain is all Daddy’s ever known. He had a bunch of girls and he just wanted to make sure we knew how to take care of ourselves.”
“Oh, no, I’m not judging him,” Rosa said. “I spent my life around people with guns but for the most part I was afraid of the people that had them. So I guess I never fully developed a respect for them. I was kind of thinking about maybe taking some shooting lessons.”
“Oh, honey, I could teach you to shoot in no time!” Molly said with a wave of her hand.
“Now, wait a minute,” Billy said. “I’m not so sure Grant would be on board with this…”
“Who’s Grant? Her daddy?” Molly asked, rolling her eyes before turning her back on him and asking Rosa, “What time you get off today, baby?”
“At five, but I’m not sure Nate and Angel are up for having Ariana for a lot longer. Maybe I should do it on my day off.”
“When’s your day off?”
“Friday.”
“That’s almost a week away. The way I see it, you got something pressing going on here. I’m not trying to poke my nose in your business—trust me, I ain’t Mickey. But I say the sooner the better. What time you come in tomorrow?”
“My shift starts at noon tomorrow.”
“Perfect. Billy, you can bring her up the hill early in the morning.”
“I really don’t think it’s a good idea, Molly.”
“Nobody asked you what kind of idea you thought it was.”
“Rosa! Order up,” Mickey called out. She heard Molly and Billy continuing their argument as she went to get the order. When she got back with Molly’s sandwich they had come to some kind of agreement.
Molly took the sandwich and said, “Thank you, baby. This hillbilly’s gonna bring you up the hill to our shooting spot early in the morning. You good with that?”
“Sure, but I’ll have to ask Wanda or someone to watch Ariana.”
“You can bring her up with you. It’s been a long time since we’ve had any kids up at the homestead.”
Rosa didn’t want to insult Molly since she was trying to help her, but there was no way she was taking Ariana to a shooting range, even a homemade one.
“We’ll see,” she said with a hesitant smile. She glanced up at Billy, who was standing behind Molly, shaking his head.
“I don’t think Grant’s gonna like this.”
“It’s okay, Billy,” Rosa told him. “I’ll tell him I insisted.”
********
Ariana was still asleep when Rosa and Billy got ready to leave the next morning. Nate wasn’t any happier about Rosa learning how to shoot than Billy was. She was surprised since in all the books she’d read about American men, they seemed to give their women a lot more credit for being able to do things on their own than the ones she’d known in Mexico and Honduras.
Nate showed up to take Billy’s place on the couch and just kept shaking his head and saying, “Grant’s gonna be pissed about this.”
Finally, Rosa put her hands on her hips and looked at them both. “Why? Why on earth would Grant not want me to be able to protect myself and my daughter?”
“It’s not that,” Billy said.
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t know. I guess maybe I think that Grant would want to be the one to teach you so that he could make sure you learn all the safety rules about handling a gun.”
“You’ll be there while Molly’s teaching me, Billy. Aren’t you one of the best shooters on this team?”
Billy raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Not as good as Grant.”
“Well, Grant’s not here, so you’ll have to do. I’ll count on you to make sure Molly’s teaching me correctly. Besides, I like Molly and I trust her. I don’t believe she’d steer me wrong. I’m not going to be running around packing a gun either. If I feel confident after a few lessons I might just get one to keep at the house. It might make me feel a little more secure.”
Billy and Nate exchanged a glance and then Billy said, “Alrighty then, let’s go.”
“Thank you for staying with Ana, Nate. Tell her I’ll be back to see her for a while before I have to go to work.”
“No problem. I enjoy the little rugrat.”
“When you gonna marry Angel and start making some of your own?” Billy asked him with a grin.
Nate just laughed as they left. Rosa loved this town and these people but after the way she’d grown up under a shroud of secrecy, she’d probably never understand their need to know everyone else’s business.
On their way up the mountain to Molly’s homemade shooting range, in an effort to get to know more about Billy, Rosa asked him, “So who taught you how to shoot?”
“My dad and my brothers.”
“How many brothers do you have?”
“Four.”
“Oh, wow, that’s a lot of boys in one house.”
He laughed. “Well, I reckon it was for a while. I was what they call a ‘late in life’ baby. My oldest brother was seventeen when I was born and the youngest was thirteen so thankfully for my parents by the time I got to hell raisin’ age, they were grown and gone.”
“Do any of them still live around here?”
“Nope. The oldest went off to college in Missouri, met a girl, got married, and had about four kids of his own.”
Rosa smiled. “About?”
“Yeah. Last time I saw him was at my mother’s funeral. He had three then and one in the oven. That was a few years ago, so he might have one or two more by now.”
“What about the rest of them?”
“The next to the oldest joined the army. He lived through two wars and then got hit by a drunk driver when he got back to Texas.”
“Oh, Billy, I’m sorry.”
He nodded. “Yeah, me too. Honestly, I didn’t know him all that well. Those two oldest were more like uncles than brothers. I still hang out with the other two sometimes. They live in San Antonio. One is married and has a kid and the other one is…well, he’s kind of a dog like me.”
Rosa smiled again. She’d heard the other guys and some of the women that came into the bar refer to him in worse terms than that, but there was no way she was bringing that up. Instead, she said, “I’m sorry for the loss of your mother. Is your dad still living?”
“Yeah, the ornery old coot lives with me. If you ever met him you’d understand why I don’t mind sleeping on your couch one bit.”
She laughed and said, “I think a man that raised five boys and taught at least one of them to shoot as well as you do might be an interesting guy to meet.”
Billy laughed along with her. “Yeah, well, we’ll just let you keep thinking that. Here we are.”
Billy had pulled off the long dirt road they were on a while back and onto something that resembled a hiking path. It was surrounded by trees and they drove along it for about fifty feet before the trees opened into a beautiful, green clearing. Rosa saw Molly right away. She had a rifle slung over her shoulder and she was setting up a target.
“You ready for this?” Billy asked her as he turned off the ignition.
Rosa had butterflies in her stomach. She’d always hated guns growing up and was nervous about handling one. Her earliest memories were of them killing all the people she loved. But she was tired of being dependent on everyone else to take care of her and her daughter. She wanted to be proactive about learning how to do that herself and this was the first step.
She nodded at Billy and forced a smile. “I’m ready.”