Free Ten-Gallon Tensions in Texas: A Kate on Vacation Mystery (The Kate on Vacation Mysteries Book 3) by Kassandra Lamb

started moving downward as he undid the button.
    She closed her eyes and arched her back.
    The branches above them shook. Skip’s head snapped up.
    Suddenly he was sprawled on top of her, crushing the air from her lungs, one arm wrapped protectively around her head. The patter of something falling against the dry leaves around the blanket, then a hard object struck her foot.
    The pattering stopped. Skip rolled off of her and peered up into the branches. He grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet and out from under the tree.
    She glanced back. A dead limb lay where her feet had been. She reached for her top button to fasten it.
    Loud rustling, a crack and a whooshing sound. A large branch hurtled though the air, landing hard in the middle of the blanket–where they had been lying a moment before.
    Skip pulled her around behind the trunk of another tree. Her heart raced and she struggled to catch her breath.
    The canopy of the live oak had gone still.
    “What the hell is up there?” she whispered. “What kind of creature would rain twigs and branches down on us?”
    “A two-legged critter would be my guess,” Skip said in a low voice.

CHAPTER NINE
    “We’re not going to wait him out, are we?” The silent woods were creeping Kate out.
    Skip shook his head. “He’s probably not gonna come down until we leave. And I’m not about to try to climb up there.”
    Kate was relieved to hear that. They circled the outer edge of the clearing, trying to stay out of sight of whoever might be in the big live oak.
    They hustled along the path out of the woods. When they got to the bike, Skip stopped. He examined it, then pulled it away from the tree and threw a leg over it.
    “Are you going to take it?”
    “No, just gettin’ a feel for the size of its rider.”
    He dismounted and studied the bike again, then leaned it back against the tree. “Come on. Let’s go.”
    “What about your mother’s blanket?” Kate felt a slight tug of guilt for not thinking about it sooner. But she didn’t relish the idea of going back into the woods to retrieve it.
    “I’ll come back for it later.” He took her hand and started for the car. “With one of José’s deputies,” he added in a grim voice.
     
    Skip dropped her back at his mother’s house and went in search of the sheriff.
    As Kate entered the back door, she was greeted by the sight of her children having a snack at the kitchen table with their grandmother.
    “Mommy,” Billy yelled when he spotted her. “We went to Buc-ee’s and saw a live beaver and he was huge! Big as a man.”
    Kate winced at the volume of his voice.
    “That’s ’cause he was a man, dummy,” Edie said.
    “Inside voice, Billy, and Edwina Huntington-Canfield, since when do you call your brother names?”
    Edie dropped her eyes to the plate of cookies on the table in front of her.
    “Was too a real beaver,” Billy said, with no discernible reduction in volume. “He told me he was. He said they grow everything bigger in Texas.”
    Kate hid a smile.
    “Real beavers can’t talk, du…” Edie glanced at her mother. “…duh.”
    Kate opted to accept the last minute substitution. She turned to her mother-in-law. “What is a Bucky’s?”
    “It’s B-u-c, dash, double e. It’s a convenience store, Texas style. There’s a whole chain of them in this part of the state.”
    Kate gave her a mock glare. “And what sugary snack did you buy them there? In addition to cookies, that is.”
    The woman looked a little guilty, but only a little. “Just ice cream cones. But hey, I don’t get to spoil them all that often.”
    Kate resisted the temptation to say, Thank God!
    She shook her head at her mother-in-law. “You get to put them to bed tonight.”
    The woman broke out a grin so much like her son’s it made Kate smile back despite her annoyance.
    “That isn’t exactly a hardship, daughter-in-law.” She turned to the kids. “We’ll have a story-time marathon.”
    Kate rolled her eyes and