“Dammit! Loretta! You can’t stay here all summer,” Jackson said.

“Why not?”

“Why would you want to?”

“I don’t want to. I have to. Nona is going home at the end of the summer. She is going to finish college if I have to chain her to my wrist and go to every class with her.”

“Did I hear…Oh. My. God!” Nona said from the doorway. “What in the hell are you doing here? And who was that woman speeding out of here, Daddy?”

Jackson looked from his daughter back to his ex-wife, who was still shooting daggers at him. “She says she’s here to make sure you don’t get too comfortable here at the ranch. That she’s going to make you go back to college come fall if she has to chain herself to you and go to classes with you.”

“And he doesn’t have the sense God gave a piss ant,” Loretta said.

Nona frowned. “Okay, you two. Call a truce. Momma, you can stay and Daddy, you are going to let her. We are all adults here. Besides she’ll be bored to tears in four days and itching to leave. She hates the canyon. I’ve made up my mind, Momma. I’m not going back to college. That’s settled, so you can go home and not waste your time here.”

“It’s only one more year, Nona.”

“I don’t care if it’s only one more week. And, Daddy, it’s a great idea that she’s here. She’ll see that I mean business and it’ll give you two some time to work through this thing that neither of you would ever talk about. Goodnight.”

Loretta crossed her arms under her breasts. “It’s that damn cowboy. He’s got his eye on Lonesome Canyon. One more year and she’ll have her education, Jackson. Help me convince her.”

“She’s too much like you to talk her into anything. Once you set your mind, Jesus, God and angels with harps couldn’t change it,” he said.

Nona pushed past her, stopping long enough to kiss her on the cheek. “Welcome home, Mama. Travis has his eye on me, not this ranch, and I happen to love him. And, even if you two join forces, I’m not going back to school.”

“You love him?” Jackson and Loretta said in unison, their heads jerking around to look at Nona instead of each other.

“Well, at last you are in agreement about something. I’m going to bed. You two can tear down the place with your snappin’, bitchin’ and bitin’ if you want to. But you’d best have it rebuilt before Rosie wakes up in the morning.” She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder as she headed up the stairs and the bright chandelier lit up a silver dollar sized hickey right there on her neck.

“Did you see that?” Jackson’s eyes settled on Loretta’s gorgeous lips.

“I saw it. Did you hear what she said?” Loretta gasped.

“I’ll tear that boy limb from limb.”

“Over a hickey on her neck? It’s your fault, so you can’t be judging her or him.” Loretta said. “If you didn’t bring women in here with expectations of taking them up to your bedroom, then by damn, she wouldn’t have a hickey on her neck. How old is this Travis anyway?”

He backed up a step. “Twenty-three.”

She followed. “Where in the hell was your mind at twenty-three? Think about that before you go runnin’ off with your bimbo and leaving Nona to do whatever she damn well pleases!”

“I was a father and we were married when I was twenty-three, if you will do the math, woman.” Jackson’s tone was pure ice. Loretta moved a few more inches into his personal space, but he didn’t back up an inch. “You were a father and we were divorced by the time we were that age. And don’t call me woman. You surely haven’t gotten so senile you’ve forgotten how much I hate it when you call me that.”

“We still are divorced, so don’t be giving me any shit about dating other women.” He rubbed a hand across his forehead. “Surely, they aren’t sleeping…”

She shook her finger at him. “I don’t imagine she got that hickey from holding his hand, do you? And I’m pretty sure she lost her virginity right here on this damn ranch at sixteen like I did.”

“I damn sure don’t like it,” Jackson said.

“Well, you liked it back then,” Loretta chuckled.

“I’m not talkin’ about that. You know what I mean.”

Loretta spun around with all the grace of a green butterfly about to take flight. “Yes, I do and I’m not leaving her here to make the same mistakes we did. She is not going to get married at her age, and that’s what’ll happen next. Goodnight, Jackson.”

He took a step toward her. “Where are you sleeping?”

“In our old bedroom. Rosie said that you don’t use it anymore. Don’t worry, I won’t get in the way of your social life.” She swept up the stairs in a fluff of emerald.

Jackson poured a stiff drink of Jack Daniels and downed it like a cowboy in an old western movie. He stared at the empty staircase and poured another finger of whiskey, turned off the lights and carried it with him up to his bedroom. He slumped into an oversized leather recliner and kicked back.

It was going to be one long hot summer. If they named tornadoes like they did hurricanes, it would be named Tornado Loretta and there wasn’t a shelter in the world that could protect anyone or anything from that storm.