Free I Love This Bar by Carolyn Brown Page B

away from the truck. A gentle breeze teased the tall grasses in the pasture and the white clouds dotted the broad expanse of blue sky above her head.
       Chigger shook a quilt out and it floated down to the earth, wrinkle free. Jim Bob brought the coolers, one at a time, and set them on the quilt. Then he brought a CD player and a small black case and handed them to Chigger. She flipped through the case and found the CD she wanted, put it in the player, and cranked up music from Toby Keith. She had her hands above her head and was moving in time to the music by the time Jim Bob had a worm threaded on his hook.
       Chigger motioned toward the extra rods. "Might as well bait a hook. We ain't goin' home until we catch supper or dark, whichever one comes first."
       Daisy grabbed the extra quilt that Chigger had tossed to one side, threw it over her shoulder, picked up a rod and reel with one hand and a hand full of wiggling earth worms with the other, and circled the pond to the other side. She was at their mercy when it came to transportation, but she'd be damned if she'd be nice about it.
       She laid the earth worms on the ground and they all immediately began to wiggle their way into the earth. She hurriedly tossed out her quilt, not giving a damn if it was wrinkle free or not, grabbed the worms, and shoved them into the zippered pocket on the outside of her purse, baited the hook, pressed the release button on the reel, and threw the line out into the pond.
       "You goin' to pout all afternoon?" Chigger yelled when the music stopped.
       Daisy nodded.
       Chigger laughed.
       She heard a truck in the distance and grimaced as Jarod parked his shiny white truck next to the old one.
       "Hey, everyone. Looks like you're already set up," he called out. He wore bibbed overalls over a white gauze undershirt. The overalls were faded and worn, but that didn't make her feel a bit better about the way she looked.
       He gathered up fishing equipment from the other side of the pond and slowly made his way to her quilt. In that getup she looked like Daisy from the old Duke s of Hazzard television show. The reaction his fickle body had to the sight of her standing there with one hip cocked out, sweat glistening on her body, and those long shapely legs made him damn glad he was wearing baggy overalls.
       "Why are you pouting?" he asked.
       "Who said I'm pouting?"
       "Chigger did and said I was to come over here and make you laugh."
       Daisy glared across the pond.
       "Where's the bait?"
       "In the zippered part of my purse," she said.
       Jarod threw back his head and laughed. "What in the devil are they doing in your purse?"
       It wasn't funny but his deep laughter was infectious. At first it was just a schoolgirl giggle and then it was a full-fledged laughter blending with his and floating on the wind across the pond.
       "You did good," Chigger yelled.
       Jarod gave her a thumb's up sign. "She's got worms in her purse," he shouted.
       Chigger and Jim Bob both got tickled.
       "I couldn't toss out the quilt and hold them both. When I put them down they started to wiggle back into the earth so I put them in my purse. You got a problem with that?" Daisy asked.
       "No, ma'am," Jarod chuckled.
       Music floated on the wind across the pond. Toby sang about getting on down to the main attraction with a little less talk and a lot more action. It was the hot wind heating up Daisy's body, or so she kept telling herself. But honesty prevailed after a few seconds and she admitted it was really Jarod's presence that had her sweating even more than normal. Damn, but he was sexy even in overalls and scuffed up boots.
       He fished a worm from her purse, wound it around a hook, and flipped the line out into the pond. He stole long glances at her from behind his sunglasses. No makeup. Hair escaping her ponytail and sticking to her sweaty, dirt-smudged face. Shorts with