Sugar Plums for Dry Creek & At Home in Dry Creek Read Online Free

real soon,” Bobby said.
    Jacob nodded. “I expect she will.”
    Judd gave him a curt nod of thanks. Barbara had asked for a few days, but Judd had figured he’d giveher a week. By now, she was at least two months over due to pick up the kids.
    Judd hadn’t told the kids he’d contacted the court that had is sued the restraining order their mother had flashed in front of him and asked them to help find her. Fortunately Barbara had listed him as her next of kin on some paper they had. The court clerk had called every women’s shelter between here and Denver and hadn’t located Judd’s cousin.
    Judd had had to do some persuasive talking to the clerk, because he didn’t want to mention the kids. He figured his cousin needed a chance to come back for them on her own.
    â€œShe’s just hurt her hand so she can’t write and tell us when,” Bobby added confidently.
    â€œI expect that’s right. Mail some times takes a while,” Jacob agreed, and then added, “but then it only makes the letter more special when you do get it.”
    The older men shifted in their seats. Judd knew they were all aware of the troubles Amanda and Bobby were having. They might not know the de tails, but he had told his land lady, Linda, back in the beginning of September that he was watching the children for his cousin for a couple of weeks. By now, every one in Dry Creek probably knew there was something wrong.
    Even if he was a new comer, he would be foolishto think they hadn’t asked each other why the kids were still here. Of course, the old men were polite and wouldn’t ask a direct question, at least not in front of the kids, so they probably didn’t know how bad it all was. They probably thought Barbara had called and made arrangements for the kids to stay longer.
    â€œSpeaking of letters, maybe we could write a letter to the new woman and tell her we all want a bakery more than a ballet school,” Charley finally broke the silence with a suggestion.
    â€œWe can’t do that,” Jacob said with a sigh. “You don’t write a letter to some one who’s right across the street. No, we need to be neighborly and tell her to her face. It isn’t fair that we let her think she’ll make a go of it here with that school of hers.”
    â€œWell, I can’t talk to her,” Charley said. “I’m the one who promised her everything would be fine.”
    â€œToo bad she wasn’t the one who was deaf,” one of the other men muttered.
    â€œI’m not deaf. I had a bad connection is all,” Charley said. “It could happen to any one.”
    â€œMaybe he could go talk to her,” the other man said, looking up at Judd. “He seems to hear all right.”
    Judd felt his stomach knot up at the idea. “I got to count me out some nails. I’m building a fence.”
    He walked back to the shelves that held the boxes of nails. Amanda and Bobby trailed along after him.Judd looked down at Bobby. “Why don’t you take your sister and go across to the café and put your order in for some of that cocoa? Tell Linda I’ll be along in a minute.”
    The Linda who ran the café was also his landlady. She was renting him the Jenkins place, with an option to buy come next spring. Judd had saved the few thousand dollars the state had given him when it settled his uncle’s estate and added most of the other money he’d got ten to it for the past six years.
    He’d started out working as a ranch hand, but the wages added up too slowly for him, and so he’d spent the next couple of years on the rodeo circuit. He’d earned enough in prize money to set him self up nicely. Right now, he had enough money in the bank to buy the Jenkins place, and he’d al ready stocked it with some pure bred breeding cattle. He could have bought the place out right, but he wanted to take his time and be sure he