Jailbreak Read Online Free

my neck get thick like a rutting bull and put the taste of copper in my mouth. I could only guess at what the silken feel of the inside of her thighs would do to me. Just thinking about it was doing enough and I forced myself to wrench my mind around in another direction before it became obvious what I was thinking about.
    After about a half an hour of watching two women scurrying and scattering I figured I’d been ignored long enough. I got up and said, “Well, I reckon I’ll be getting on back. Y’all appear to be pretty busy.”
    Nora turned around and looked at me like I was a truant trying to slip out of the schoolroom. She said, “Justa Williams, you sit right back down there. I want to talk to you.”
    I said, “When?”
    She had several pins in her mouth so it come out kind of mumbled, but she said, “Here in a minute. Besides, you ought to stay for supper.”
    Of course the idea of eating hers or her mother’s cooking was always bribe enough for me. But I couldn’t see when they were going to have time to fix it. I said, doubtfully, “Y’all are plannin’ on cooking, are you?”
    “Well, of course,” she said. “Did you think we couldn’t hem up a few sheets and cook too? Now you go on down to Crooks and drink a beer. But don’t you dare drink too many. You come back in about an hour.”
    So I went down to Crooks and had a beer. Since she’d told me not to have too many I didn’t. But since she hadn’t said nothing about whiskey I did have several tumblers of that. I also played a little poker and managed to win about forty dollars. I arrived back at the house at about five, just in time for supper, and got a good eye-scolding from Nora.
    Later, when it had cooled down a little, we sat in the swing on the front porch. I was feeling pretty mellow after a supper of fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. Or at least I was until Nora wanted to know when the furniture was going to arrive. We’d picked it out in Galveston better than a month before and some of it had to come from New Orleans and other points. I said, a little uncomfortably, “It’ll be here right about the time the house is finished.”
    She asked, “And when will that be? You keep saying we’ll go see it when it’s finished. And I keep expecting you every day.”
    I said, reluctantly, “Well, there’s been a small delay.”
    “Oh, no,” she said, and put her hand to her cheek.
    “Now, don’t worry,” I said hastily. “It’ll be all right. Fact is we run short of those red Mexican roof tiles you wanted. Said they went with the house. Well, the contractor has gone back to Galveston to get more. Said a boat ought to be in from Vera Cruz right away with another shipment.”
    She genuinely looked distressed. She said, “Oh, Justa, don’t tell me it’s not going to be ready in time.”
    I said, “I’m not telling you it’s not going to be ready in time. Did I say it wouldn’t? Listen, if I have to I’ll stand over that building crew with a whip in my hand.”
    She said, “Justa, it just has to be. The invitations have gone out. Mother and I are working ourself to death to finish my trousseau.”
    Well, I didn’t know what that was, but I figured it had something to do with all the sewing and flaying around. I said, “Hell, Nora, even if it’s not finished on the exact date we can always stay in the big house until it’s done.”
    I might as well have slapped her across the face the way she jumped back. She said, with plenty of gumption, “Justa Williams, I am not going to be staying in someone else’s house. I’ll stay in my own house or I won’t get married at all.”
    I said, “But we’re going on a honeymoon. That’s two weeks.”
    “I want it ready before we leave. And that’s that.”
    There wasn’t a hell of a lot I could say to that. I just stood up and put on my hat and said I’d better be getting back to the ranch. She gave me her cheek to kiss, which was not a good sign. As I left I said