Free I Love This Bar by Carolyn Brown Page A

hell but it's a fine fishin' wagon."
       South of Thurber, Jim Bob took a dirt road and dust boiled up around them as thick as cigarette smoke in the Honky Tonk on a busy night. It rolled behind the truck then chased after them, scattering all over the cow tongue cactus lining the sides of the road and drifting into the cab of the truck. It stuck to the sweat on Daisy's face and neck and smeared when she wiped at it.
       Chigger left a dirt smudge when she swatted a mosquito on her neck. "If someone could figure out a casserole dish to make from cow tongue cactus, they could make a fortune. You got any bright ideas about how to cook up cactus, Daisy?"
       "Not me. How about you?"
       "Well, if we can't cook the sumbitches maybe we could figure out a way to boil them down and use them to run car and truck engines. Save a hell of a lot on gas. Or if we could figure out a way to make mosquito repellent out of it, we could make a fortune." Chigger smashed another bug on her bare arm, leaving a dime-sized blood stain.
       Jim Bob slung his right arm around her shoulders and drove with his left hand. "That's my girl. Ain't she the smartest thing you've ever seen?"
       "I don't know. If it killed mosquitoes it might kill Chiggers and then she'd be in big trouble. What are we doing here?" Daisy finished the last sip of beer and looked up at Emmett McElroy's house.
       "Fishin'," Chigger said innocently.
       Jim Bob took a cell phone from the bib pocket of his overalls and poked numbers. "Hey, we're here. We're goin' on down to the pond. Got enough fishin' poles and worms for all of us so don't go tryin' to hunt up any of Uncle Emmett's. Bring him along. Seeing Chigger might sweeten him up the rest of the day."
       Daisy poked Chigger in the arm. "Who is he talking to?"
       "Shhh, he can't hear on that phone if there's noise around him," Chigger said.
       "Well, then let the old codger sleep if he's too stubborn to leave the air conditioning." Jim Bob flipped the phone shut.
       Chigger looked at Daisy. "He was talkin' to Jarod. He lets us fish in his pond and Jim Bob is askin' him if he wants to go with us."
       "You did this on purpose. You are a bitch from hell," Daisy said.
       Chigger winked. "You are one fickle friend. You just agreed with Jim Bob that I'm the smartest thing either of you ever saw."
       "I did not agree with him. I didn't answer at all."
       "That's agreeing. You didn't disagree."
       Daisy looked down at her scuffed up cowboy boots, the worst pair in her closet. Her jean shorts were like Chigger's—cut off so short the pockets hung below the denim, only Daisy's had paint splotches on them as well as dirt and sweat. Her red cotton halter top was faded and speckled with paint too.
       Chigger grinned. "If you don't like that cowboy then why does it matter that you look like shit?"
       "Thank you so much," Daisy grumbled.
       Jim Bob stomped the clutch and put the car in first gear. "Well, I think both of you are sexy as hell in them getups. Fish will come up to the top just to cop a look at the two prettiest women in the whole state."
       Chigger kissed him on the cheek and whispered something in his ear that caused him to chuckle.
       Daisy looked out the window and wished she'd shot them both with her sawed off shotgun. All that sweet talk and love cooped up in the cab of a truck when she couldn't shake a vision of Jarod from her mind was downright sinful.
       Jim Bob parked the truck under a big oak tree, opened the door, and Chigger slid across the seat and under the steering wheel into his waiting arms. He kissed her so hard that Daisy blushed.
       Chigger grinned at Daisy when the kiss ended. "Might as well stop poutin' and get out. Who knows, maybe you'll get a kiss today."
       "You are really a bitch from hell," Daisy seethed as she got out and helped carry a couple of quilts and fishing gear to the enormous pond not a hundred feet