As Maddie started in, I snapped at her.
“I don’t remember asking you what I have to do, Dr. Laura. If I wanted your advice, I’d call into your radio show to get it. Oh, wait a minute. You don’t have a radio show. You’re not Dr. Laura. You just think you are.’’
Maddie looked wounded. I didn’t feel as good as I thought I’d feel for biting her head off. Before I could say I was sorry, Mama started lecturing.
“Mace, your big sister only wants what’s best for you. You ought to listen to Maddie. She has a husband. And he loves her like the cat loves the cream jar, even after all these years.’’
“Which is a mystery to me to rival the pyramids,’’ I said sourly.
“Mace!’’
“Oh, let her pick, Mama.’’ Maddie waved the roll in her hand at me. “Mace has to take it out on someone. I’m a school principal. I think I’m tough enough to take my sister’s sniping.’’
Marty had been quiet throughout our exchange. She was watching Carlos and Belle.
“I don’t think he’s as taken with her as he’s making out to be, Mace,’’ she said.
I cursed my heart’s hopeful little flutter. “Why do you say that?’’
“Because he’s looked over here at you at least three times since he sat down next to her.’’
I fought the urge to swing my head toward Carlos. “He has not.’’
“Hush, Mace,’’ Mama said. “You know Marty’s good at reading people. She’s quiet and shy and before you know it, she knows everything she needs to know about anybody. She’s like me that way.’’
Mama? Quiet and shy? Maybe in a parallel universe. But I didn’t correct her. I needed hanging-on-to-a-man advice, and I needed it quick.
“What should I do?’’
“Where should we start?’’ Mama said.
“Not helping, Mama,’’ Marty said. “Now, listen, Mace. I know you don’t like to play games, but you need to do just a little of that right now. If you can make Carlos just a little bit jealous, make him realize he doesn’t want anyone else to have you, it might knock some sense back into his head.’’
“I tried to see if he’d get jealous over Trey. That didn’t go so well.’’
“Let’s find somebody else,’’ Maddie said. “Somebody without a drinking problem and a crazy ex-girlfriend and a questionable relationship with his dead father’s widow.’’
“I’ve got it,’’ Mama slapped her hand against her thigh, jostling a pile of fried potatoes on the plate in her lap. “It’s perfect girls: He’s strong, silent, and unattached.’’
All of our eyes followed her gaze across the fire. The trail boss was sitting off by himself, staring at the stars. He looked happy. He was probably dreaming of a day coming soon when he’d be out on the range with the cattle again, with just his horse and a cur dog for company.
“I don’t know, Mama . . .’’
“Nonsense, Mace. You don’t have to fall in love with the man,’’ she said. “You just have to flirt with him a little bit. It’s a piece of cake, honey.’’
Easy for her to say.
The Committee to Fix Mace’s Love Life voted to send Maddie along with me on my mission. Given the choice between looking at me or Marty, any man would choose Marty. And Mama, with her gimpy ankle, would have slowed me down or distracted Jack. We only had so much time.
“You can do this, Mace,’’ Maddie pep-talked into my ear as we rounded the fire. “It’s easier than wrestling gators, and you’re good at that. At least Jack Hollister doesn’t have seventy-five razor sharp teeth and a tail that could break a man’s leg.’’
“Hey, Jack,’’ I said as we got closer.
So far so good.
He lowered his eyes from the night sky and frowned at me.
Uh-oh.
“I was just wondering if you’d heard anything about Doc,’’ I asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing yet.’’ He returned his gaze skyward.
Maddie gave me a little push and an opening. “We saw you looking at the stars, Jack. My sister Mace loves astronomy. When she was a kid, she had a poster with all the constellations on the ceiling over her bed.’’
“Really?’’
“No.’’ I glared at Maddie. “But I do love looking at the sky.’’
I sat down next to him. “Look, there’s Canis Major.’’ I pointed overhead.
“The bigger of Orion’s hunting dogs,’’ he said, smiling at me. He looked up again and outlined Canis Minor. “And there’s the little dog.’’
Maddie stood out of Jack’s view, tapping her finger to her eye and pulling out the lid. I couldn’t believe she wanted me to try that old chestnut. I mouthed No way at her. She fisted her left hand and pointed to her wedding ring. She’d been with Kenny since high school.
“Ouch,’’ I said, feeling like a simple fool. “I think I’ve got something in my eye.’’
“Let me take a look,’’ Jack said, putting a calloused finger to my cheek. “Probably some dust and grit from near the dairy. That was a mess out there, wasn’t it? I thought it would never stop blowing.’’
Those were the most words I’d heard him speak when he wasn’t standing on a log, addressing the assembled riders.
“Sure was a mess,’’ I agreed.
He lifted my hat off my head and turned my face toward the light of the campfire. Then he peered deep, searching for the non-existent speck in my eye.
“Listen, Jack, I wanted to tell you how well you’ve handled everything that’s happened on this ride. I don’t think many trail bosses would be up to dealing with all that.’’
“Well, thanks, Mace.’’ He pulled his face back a bit from mine and smiled. “That means a lot to hear you say that. I’m sorry about that scare with your sister and the rattlesnake, and then your poor mama and Shotgun. Is everybody okay?’’
I nodded.
“Hold still, now. I think I see something.’’ He barely brushed my bottom eyelid with the tip of his finger, a surprisingly gentle touch. “Got it.’’ He held up a black, buggy speck. “Looks like a gnat.’’
Who knew?
Reaching down for my hat, I took a furtive glance at Carlos and Belle. She was talking, but he was frowning at Jack and me. As I straightened my hat on my head, I sneaked a look at Maddie from under the brim. Her face was creased in a big smile and her hands were nearly hidden in the folds of her riding culottes. But she sent a signal for my eyes only.
Two thumbs up.
I heard whir, snap! A flash of light nearly blinded my gnat-invaded eye.
“Got it,’’ Belle said, lowering an old-school camera from her face. “That was a good one. You and Jack were really lost up there in the stars, Mace.’’
The trail boss looked irritated. “I don’t like having my picture taken, Belle. I wish you’d have given me some warning.’’
“Candid shots are much better, Jack. People look unnatural when you give them time to think about being shot.’’ He raised his eyebrows. Belle realized her turn of phrase. “I mean ‘shot’ like shooting a picture, not shot like what happened to Doc.’’ She sat down next to us. “How is he? I’ve been thinking an awful lot about him tonight.’’
I guess she meant she was thinking of Doc when she wasn’t pouring out her heart to Carlos or walking around “shooting’’ with her camera at anything that moved. I glanced across the fire to where he’d been sitting with Belle a half-hour before Jack and I got caught up in star-gazing. Carlos had disappeared.
“Still no word about Doc,’’ the trail boss answered Belle. “The hospital said he’d probably be in surgery for several hours.’’