Of course, Ethan was a little surprised himself when he looked at the bar and saw who was sitting there. The beginning line of a joke popped into his head: An angel, a beer-bellied wiseman, Joseph, and a pig walked into a bar…
“Well, hey, Ethan!” Kenny Gene waved him over so exuberantly that his wing clipped Mayor Harley Sutter’s wiseman crown and knocked it to the floor.
Harley sent him an annoyed look before leaning down to pick it up. “So what brings you to Boot’s, Ethan?” He readjusted the plastic crown on his balding head. “I thought you were supposed to be gettin’ the animals over to the church.”
“I am. But I thought I’d have me a beer first.” Or six, Ethan thought as he slipped onto the stool next to Joseph. Even in his sour mood, Ethan couldn’t help grinning at the floral sheets draped around his friend Colt Lomax-especially when the man had once been the biggest bad boy in Bramble. But before Ethan could do a little friendly teasing, the baby pig sitting on Colt’s lap released a squeal of delight and launched himself at Ethan.
Ethan laughed as his face was covered in wet pig kisses. “I’ve missed you too, Sherman. But it looks like you’ve been well taken care of.”
“That’s putting it lightly,” Colt said. He took another drink from his long-necked bottle, the pink-flowered sheet sliding up his tattooed arm. “Hope and my sister, Shirlene, spoil that pig rotten.”
Ethan was glad to hear it. Ever since he’d given the pig to Hope as a gift, he’d had second thoughts. Sherman was special-the runt of the litter that Ethan hadn’t expected to live. But the tiny piglet had surprised him. And what Sherman lacked in physical size and strength, he’d made up for in brains. And not just brains, but a sixth sense about people. Even now, he studied Ethan with his intense beady eyes, almost as if he could feel Ethan’s emotional turmoil.
“I’m okay, boy,” Ethan whispered close to his ear. Still, Sherman continued to stare at him until Manny, the bartender, brought over the beer and a bowl of mixed nuts. And food could distract Sherman from just about anything.
While the pig devoured the nuts, Ethan turned back to Colt. “So I guess Darla is responsible for your Joseph’s outfit?”
“I wish,” Colt grumbled. “If Darla had made it, I could’ve gotten out of it. But how do you tell your wife of two weeks-your pregnant wife, no less-that you aren’t going to wear the costume that she went to all the trouble to make for you?”
“Well, I have to admit that the purple yarn belt is a little flashy,” Ethan teased. “But other than that, it’s not so bad.”
Colt grumbled something under his breath about annoying farmers before Mayor Sutter spoke up.
“Well, I think you should be honored, son. It’s not every day that a man gets to be Joseph to our little Hope’s Mary. It just doesn’t get much better than that.” The look on Colt’s face said that he could think of a lot of things that were better.
“Unless you’re Slate and get to be Faith’s Joseph.” Kenny Gene shook his head, causing the halo that was attached to his cowboy hat to wobble. “Man, Pastor Robbins ain’t gonna know what hit him when he sees our nativity scene.”
Ethan figured that was an understatement. The pastor had been in Bramble for only a year and was still trying to adjust to west Texas life. Tonight might just send him straight back to California-or over the edge.
Colt downed the rest of his beer and slipped off the stool. Standing, the floor-length floral robes looked even more amusing.
“Come on, Sherman.” Colt jerked the sheet from under the toe of his biker boots and picked up the staff that leaned against the bar. “Let’s get this over with.”
But the pig refused to budge from Ethan’s lap. Even when Colt reached for him, he grunted out a refusal and continued to lick the nut bowl.
“Smart pig.” Colt patted Sherman’s head. “I wish I could get out of it so easily.”
Ethan laughed. “I’ll watch out for him, Colt. You just watch out for that lightnin’ bolt when God notices who’s playin’ Joseph.”
“Real funny, Ethan,” Colt said before he headed for the door.
“We better get goin’ too, Kenny,” Mayor Sutter said. “Cindy Lynn will have our hides if we’re not there for the big dress rehearsal.” He glanced at Ethan. “You comin’, son?”
Ethan held up his beer. “After I finish this.”
Once they were gone, Ethan sipped his beer and tried to have fun. He failed miserably. Manny was busy closing up the bar for the night, which left Ethan no choice but to watch the Christmas movie on the television over the bar. It was the one where Jimmy Stewart gets to see how the world would change if he’d never been born. And it depressed the hell out of Ethan. Since he didn’t have a brother to save from a frozen pond, wasn’t married, and didn’t have children, he figured the world would do nicely without him.
“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.”
Instead of coming from the television, the words came from just over his shoulder. And Ethan turned to find Sam’s sister, Marcy, standing there. She wasn’t wearing a sheet or wings, just a red dress that revealed more of her large breasts than it covered. She reached up and flicked one of the jingle bells that hung from her earlobes, and the tinkling noise had her laughing.
“What do you know, Marcy Henderson is handin’ out wings to angels,” she said as she slung an arm over Ethan’s shoulders.
“Hey, Marcy,” he said. Since he’d never found Marcy attractive, Ethan had no problem talking to her. Too bad they’d never had anything to talk about. While Sam loved animals, football, the farm, and a multitude of other things that Ethan liked as well, Marcy seemed to like only two things-herself and men. And Ethan didn’t care to talk about either subject. He glanced at the door and wondered how long it would take him to get to it. But before he could even gather Sherman up in his arms, Marcy took the seat next to him.
“Buy a girl a drink?”
Figuring a drink might get her arm off him, he motioned to Manny, who came over to take her order for “Sex on the Beach.” Manny didn’t even blink at the word, but Ethan’s face burned with heat. Or maybe his embarrassment had more to do with the image that flashed into his brain. An image of his parents having sex on the beach in South Padre.
Geez, I really am losing it. He shook the image away, disrupting a sleeping Sherman and causing him to grunt in disapproval. But the sound achieved what Ethan wanted. Marcy removed her arm as she jumped off her stool.
She held a hand to her chest and waved one long red nail at Sherman. “Who let that thing in?”
“Marcy, you know animals have always been welcome in Boot’s,” Manny said as he placed her drink on one of those little napkins. “Especially if they know how to mind their manners.” He reached out and patted the pig’s head. “And Sherman always minds his manners.” He arched a brow at Marcy. “Unlike some people I know.”
Marcy ignored the comment and turned back to Ethan. “It figures that you would have some kind of animal with you. You and that sister of mine can’t seem to stay away from them.” Casting a wary look at Sherman, she eased back onto the stool. “I just had to suffer through two hours of Laverne and Daddy gushing over my sister becomin’ a doctor. Not a real doctor, mind you, but an animal doctor. Geez, what was she thinkin’?”
Ethan wondered the same thing. What had Sam been thinking when she stole his profession? And why hadn’t she ever mentioned the fact to him? Of course, she had written him a few times, and he’d never written her back. He had justified it by telling himself he was too busy with the farm, but in reality he’d been mad at her for leaving in the first place. Hell, he was still mad at her.
As he took another drink of beer, Marcy stuck out a leg and pointed to her red shoe. “Although I got me a pair of New York designer shoes out of the deal. ’Course, now I have to come up with a gift for Sam. Somethin’ that’s never been easy, considerin’ she has the worse taste in clothes of any human I know. Unlike me, who happens to have unlimited fashion sense.”