Free The Outer Edge of Heaven by Jaclyn M. Hawkes Page B

taking the long way home lately?"
    She felt slightly foolish, but leveled with him anyway. "Uh, well. I don't have to stop and visit with Tyree if I take the long way home."
    He tightened the cap on her radiator and shut the hood. "I wondered if you were trying to avoid Chase. Does Tyree bother you?"
    "Mmm. He doesn't bother me really. He just creeps me. Know what I mean?"
    Shaking his head with that almost smile, he said, "No."
    "He hasn't done anything to bother me, but he kind of makes my skin crawl. Sorry, that sounds rude, I know. I can't help it."
    "Charlie, you don't need to apologize. Doesn't it occur to you that what you refer to as making your skin crawl could be a prompting to stay away from him?"
    She met his eyes. "Yes, actually. I'm sure of it, in fact. That's why the funky route home. It just sounds a bit off the deep end when I voice it that way."
    He picked up the empty coolant jugs. "Better off the deep end than sorry. Watch yourself and if I can find a half way plausible reason, I'll send him packing. He's not a great hand anyway." He set out toward the main house and then said over his shoulder, "Good luck with these fancy wheels."
    She could hear him chuckling to himself as he went.
    ****
    The half way plausible reason to get rid of Tyree became apparent sooner than later. The very next day when Charlie and the kids were headed to feed the piglet she caught the strangest smell coming from one of the sheds as she went past it. She could swear she was smelling marijuana smoke.
    Just then Tuckett walked out of the shed and when he saw her he immediately looked guilty and hurried in the other direction. Charlie was horrified. She told the kids to wait for her right where they were and she opened the door of the shed and went inside. The smell was far stronger inside the closed shed and there was still the haze of smoke hanging in the air.
    She wasn't surprised when Tyree stepped out of a stall and greeted her almost lazily. It was no great feat to figure out Tyree had been in here smoking pot with Tuckett. The air in the shed was nearly suffocating and she was instantly furious. She was so mad she decided to calm down and talk to Luke about this before deciding how to handle this situation.
    Under the circumstances she wasn't afraid of Tyree and certainly didn't feel the slightest need to be civil to him when he made some suggestion about the two of them getting together later. Still mad to the core, she slammed out of the door and gathering up the children she headed on toward the pig barn. She was going to cook up a ranch hand and serve him for dinner!
    When the little pig was well fed, she took the kids back to the house to Madge and went in search of Luke. Richard was in the great room pulling wires out of the back of the entertainment center. She could hear him grumbling as she started to go past, and she asked, "Is something wrong, Richard?"
    "Oh, this whole television system is on the fritz and Madge asked me to look at it, but really I need Luke to do it. He can fix anything. Have you seen him? This whole ranch is going to fall apart when he finally leaves here. I wish that he wanted to stay. I can't imagine why he would want to go off and be an accountant of all things."
    Charlie hesitated and then said, "Actually, Richard, Luke dreads when he's going to have to leave here. He doesn't want to be an accountant. The only reason he's studying accounting is because it'll pay the bills when Chase takes over here."
    Richard stopped what he was doing and stared at her. Finally, he asked, "When Chase takes over here? What are you talking about? Why would Chase take over here?"
    "Luke knows that eventually you'll hand the reins here over to Chase because he's the oldest son, just like all the other generations of Langstons have. He feels like when that happens, he'll have to leave. The accounting degree is simply his plan for an occupation for when he has to find a way to make a living after he leaves