That was yesterday. But today, after he got back from Amala’s, she would talk to him even if she had to follow him into the barn. Hopefully, by then she’d know what she wanted to say.
But an hour later, Dalton and Rosco still weren’t back and she was starting to worry. So many things could go wrong when trailering horses, and Dalton didn’t have the best driving record. Surely, he would call if there was a problem. Pushing that troublesome thought aside, she closed the ledgers and slipped them into the desk drawer, then went upstairs to get ready for supper.
After a quick shower, she changed and was sitting at her vanity, trying to do something with her hair, when her mother walked in with a big bag of baby stuff, Joss on her heels. Once they’d talked Mama into turning KD’s room into the nursery since it was next door to Joss’s, she had been on a decorating tear.
“Who are you getting so dressed up for?” Joss asked, eyeing the new blouse Raney had ordered online from Saks.
“Mama, of course. She doesn’t like to smell horses while she eats.”
“You sure it’s not for Dalton?”
Mama waved the idea away. “Don’t be silly. Dalton’s gay. Look what I got for the nursery.” She dug through paint samples, color charts, and cloth strips.
“Who told you he was gay?” Joss asked.
“Raney. I’m thinking pink, since she’s a girl. But I know how you modern mothers hate gender typing, so we could use blue accents here and there. How’s this?” She held up a bright pink swatch with blue butterflies.
Raney thought it was insulting to females of all ages.
Joss didn’t even look at it. “You told Mama that Dalton is gay? If he is, then what were the two of you doing in the bathroom with the door closed?”
Raney stared at her reflection and wondered what it would feel like to step through the mirror into another dimension.
“What?” Mama whipped around. “You were in the bathroom with Dalton? Where? Doing what?”
“In Waco. Putting ammonia on yellow jacket bites he couldn’t reach. And I only said Dalton was gay, Joss, so Mama would stop trying to foist me off on him.”
“I never tried to foist you off on him.”
“Only him and every other man past puberty.”
“And I never believed he was gay, either. Not the way he keeps looking at you at the dinner table.” Mama pulled out more swatches. “Yellow is gender neutral, isn’t it?”
“Really?” Joss eyed Raney in speculation. “I’ll have to watch for that at supper tonight. Desire over dessert,” she mused. “I like that. I should use it in one of my songs.”
Raney dropped her head into her hands. “Jesus, take me now.”
“Hush that talk, Raney,” Mama scolded. “He can hear you, you know. Now, what do you think of these fabrics for the nursery drapes?”
“I don’t want drapes in the baby’s room. I want blinds.”
“It’s a nursery, not a dentist’s office,” Mama argued.
“I’m with Joss,” Raney cut in, hoping a show of loyalty would get her sister to back off. “Once she’s crawling, the first thing the baby will go for is the drapes.”
Mama raised a hand in surrender. “All right. But at least let’s put up a valance. We can make a matching baby blanket to go with it.”
“We who?” Raney muttered. “None of us sew.”
“I’m sure we can figure it out,” Joss said airily. “How hard can it be?”
Mama was packing her goodies back in her bag when Joss let out a squeal. “She kicked me!”
Before Raney knew what was happening, her sister grabbed her hand and pressed it to her rounded belly. “Can you feel it?”
Raney could. And it was freaky feeling something moving around inside another person’s body. “It doesn’t hurt?”
“Not unless she kicks a kidney. Isn’t it wonderful!”
“It’s weird.”
“If you ever get pregnant, you won’t think so.” Blinking against tears, Joss patted her rotund midsection. “It’s amazing, isn’t it, Mama?”
“It is.” Mama smiled from Raney to her new favorite daughter. “And I think every woman should experience it.”
Two against one. Great. Raney admired how her mother could smile so sweetly and look pitying at the same time.
Her cell phone buzzed. Raney saw it was Dalton and was debating whether to answer it with her mother and sister in the room, when Joss snatched it off the vanity top where Raney had set it.
“Miss Raney Whitcomb’s office,” she said in a lilting secretarial voice. “I have you on speaker. How may I help you?”
“I need to talk to Raney. Now.”
“Take it off speaker and give it to me,” Raney ordered.
Instead, Mama grabbed it. “This is Raney’s mother, Dalton. What’s wrong?”
“Mama! Give me the phone!”
Mama shushed her and held it out so they could all hear.
“Toby Langers is pulling me over,” Dalton said. “I don’t know why. But he’ll probably trump up some bogus charge to take me in and I don’t want to leave the truck and Rosco beside the road. Can you send somebody to get them?”
In the background Raney could hear the deputy asking for registration and proof of insurance.
“Put Deputy Langers on the phone, Dalton,” Mama said in her kick-ass voice.
Rustling, muted conversation, then a man’s voice said, “Good afternoon, Mrs. Whitcomb. Deputy Langers here. What can I do for you today?”
“You can tell me why you’ve pulled over my employee. Was he speeding?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Drinking?”
“No.”
“Smoking pot? Doing drugs? Asleep at the wheel?”
“Not that I can tell. But I—”
“Do you suspect him of any wrongdoing I should be made aware of?”
“No, ma’am, but—”
“Then why did you pull him over?”
“Routine check, ma’am, that’s all.”
“Routine check. I understand. But what I need for you to understand, Deputy, is that the horse Mr. Cardwell is trailering is very valuable and I’d hate to have anything happen to him while you were conducting a routine and unnecessary traffic stop.”
“I’m entitled to make traffic stops whenever I see fit, Mrs. Whitcomb. Dalton Cardwell is a convicted felon. For all I know, he might have been stealing the horse.”
“That’s
