"I'm sorry to bother you, Avery, but that's who I thought I was coming to see."
"You asked to see Mr. Baxter, and there he is." Junior supplied helpfully.
"Forgive my kid, Ms. Sterling, she thinks she's funny." Avery scowled when Junior got up and took the bottle away from him when he went for a third.
"Elaboration would be good," Jillian pointed out.
"I don't run Baxter Oil, young lady, Junior does. You want a job you have to talk to her. My advice, Junior, is make an offer before the day is out. This little lady looks like she could kick your ass if she sets her mind to it. Kinda reminds me of your mama."
Jillian faced the now smiling Junior looking a little confused. "What's your full name?"
"Avery Leland Baxter, Jr."
The small blonde let out a laugh that sounded more like a squawk causing Junior's smile to get bigger. "You're kidding me, right?"
"My father also thinks he has a wonderful sense of humor, Jillian, so no, I'm not kidding. I'm sorry for tricking you but I didn't want to make the drive alone. If you give me few minutes alone with my father, I'll be happy to discuss your future with the company then take you home." Jillian shook her head like Minnie had just done minutes before but smiled anyway. "You," Junior pointed at her father, "Don't touch that bottle until I get back."
They walked toward the house in silence until Jillian asked, "Why in the world would he name you Junior?"
"I'll tell you the whole story on the way back, but the short version is this. They brought me out after my mother delivered and dad was so drunk he thought the woman said boy. While my mom was in recovery he filled out the paperwork including the name. When he sobered up he thought it was cute, and would be bad luck to change it." Junior put her hands out as if it was a reasonable explanation and waited for the jokes she had endured from the time she could walk.
Jillian looked at her and decided at that moment that Junior was the one. "Ok, you realize I'm not calling you Junior, right?"
"Everyone calls me Junior, it's my name."
"I'm not everyone, I start tomorrow, and we aren't leaving, Avery. Minnie invited us to lunch and we aren't going to disappoint her." Minnie applauded her from the kitchen door then waved the girl inside.
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"What brings you out here, Junior?" Her father asked when she walked back and sat next to him.
"Quinton and his wife died in a car accident last night." They had never sugarcoated anything between them before and she wasn't starting now.
"I'll tell you something, Junior, that boy was my son because some of my swimmers made it up stream but I never did like him. He was a mistake after your mama died and the bitch that bore him tried everything she could think of to break me. It was our bad luck her son inherited her black heart."
"Susan left me something in her will." Avery looked at his daughter not voicing his opinion of the dead woman, but she ranked up there with his son for the hurt she had caused Junior.
"What's that?" Avery accepted the glass Junior was handing him. Diabetes had put a serious crimp in his choice of refreshments and he only knocked back a few when Junior came to visit.
"Their kids."
Fuck, thought Avery, what a perfect waste of good liquor, as it came spraying out of his mouth.
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"Where did you and Junior meet?"
Jillian watched the woman move around the kitchen with efficiency. The lunch she had been cooking was put aside as Minnie started collecting the ingredients to make one of Junior's favorites instead. "On Pegasus."
"That thing is all Avery talks about. He'll be the proud father until the day he stops breathing."
"Tell me about them?" Jillian accepted a large bowl of green beans from the cook and started snapping off the ends like Minnie demonstrated.
"Avery Baxter was a hard drinking, womanizing piece of oilfield trash that ended up building a good company before he was ready to hand the reins over to Junior." Minnie laughed at the arched eyebrow Jillian was giving her.
"Sounds like a mouthful, and like you don't care for him very much."
"I love the old fool, but he's too rough to polish up, so you have to go with the truth. He walked into a bar one day and fell in love with the girl serving drinks. In six days he convinced her to marry him, pack up and move to Louisiana where he was going to make his fortune. A year later he had three working rigs, a wife that adored him despite his faults and a new baby."
Jillian stopped snapping beans before the story continued wanting to ask a question, which made Minnie look up from kneading dough to see if the girl had finished. "That was Avery, I take it?"
"It was our Junior all right. Watching her grow up, it was hard to picture my sister having any input at all."
"You're Avery's aunt?"
"Yes, Hope, her mother, was my younger sister." Minnie went back to her kneading once she jutted her chin out to the pan of beans to get her helper going.
"What happened to her?"
"It's like having Junior back in here asking questions."
Jillian bit into one of the beans from the pan and blushed. "Sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about. My sister died when Junior was barely two. She got the flu one winter that kept getting more and more complicated until it killed her." Minnie stopped to wipe the tears from her eyes getting flour on her face. "You'd swear we were on a wagon train or something having someone die of what is ultimately a bad cold. I came to help him out with Junior, and I'm still here."
"That's so sweet. You must love them both very much."
"Those two are bad eggs, Jillian, but they are both my bad eggs and I wouldn't change them for the world." Jillian looked out the window and wondered what the two Baxters were talking about that required drinks at this time of the morning.
"Is Avery seeing anyone that you know of?" Gosh that didn't sound desperate.
"Yes, I assume she is."
"Oh." Minnie looked up after hearing the dejected answer, smiling that her guess was right the minute she saw Junior had run to open the young woman's door.
"I mean, I assumed she was seeing you, dear." The biscuits she had been busy with were formed and ready to bake so Minnie moved to the next item.
"Oh no, not me. I just came to ask for a job."
"Uh huh, and did you get one?"
"I start tomorrow."
"How many constellations did she point out before you figured out you couldn't live without her?"
"Three." The two in the backyard never heard the ringing laughter or saw the deeper blush it caused to go up Jillian's face.