Don't Hex with Texas Read Online Free

might have been ‘saved’ if he went to the revival,” Beth reasoned.
    “Who was the lucky customer?” I asked. “Maybe it was someone who has some dirt on Lester, or someone Lester owes money to.”
    “It was that weird kid—the one who got a scholarship to A&M and then flunked out. You know him, Beth, the one who used to be friends with Teddy.”
    “Oh, you mean Gene Ward?” Beth asked with a frown. “That would explain a lot. His dad does own half the town. I wonder why he needed medicine.”
    “Well, the boy did have his hand bandaged. It was probably antibiotics or something for the pain.” That solved Nita’s mystery as well as Mom’s. From what I knew about Eugene Ward, he’d probably tried to take out the window so he could rob the motel, and then Nita had startled him so he’d run away before getting anything. He thought he was smarter than everyone else and could get away with anything, but he was also a big scaredy-cat. If he had been caught, his daddy would have bought off the Patels and bailed him out. He’d probably already paid off half the merchants in town after Gene’s assorted foolish stunts.
    My oldest brother, Frank, showed up then, and his presence settled things down. “Hey, Mom,” he said, giving her a hug and a quick kiss. “What brings you down here?”
    “I was out running errands and thought I’d drop by to see if y’all wanted to come over tonight for supper after you get done with work. Are Dean and Sherri around?”
    “Sherri left a little while ago,” I reported. “Dean was here before lunch, but I have no idea where he went.”
    “I guess I’ll have to track them down and make sure they’re coming. It wouldn’t be a family dinner without them. I’ll see everyone around seven-thirty.”
    Beth turned to me once Mom was gone and said, “Now, I believe you’re off duty, if you want to hand Miss Priss back to me.”
    I gladly handed over the baby, who clung to my T-shirt with damp fingers until she realized she was going back to her mother. “I’ll check my e-mail and handle a few orders before I go, now that the network’s fixed.”
    I had one message in my personal in-box, a chatty message from Trix, the MSI executive receptionist, catching me up on all the office gossip I was missing. Most of it was complaining about my replacement, Kim, and what Trix would do to her if Kim weren’t immune to magic. There was no mention of Owen. I updated orders with our major suppliers, then logged off and headed home.
    The house was empty when I got there, which meant Mom was probably at the grocery store. I probably should have offered to help her, but I’d be helping make dinner, so I needed to take what time I could get to myself. I’d also hauled home some of the office paperwork so I could actually get it done without the typical interruptions I faced at the store.
    One way my current life beat my New York life hands down was in living space. You could have fit my entire New York apartment into my family’s living room—and three of us had shared that apartment. Funny, though, that I felt less crowded sharing that small apartment with two friends than I felt living at home with my parents.
    I’d barely settled onto my bed with a stack of receipts when I heard a voice from downstairs. “Yoo-hoo! Anyone home? I thought I saw Katie’s truck outside.” It was my grandmother.
    Perhaps this house felt more crowded because it was kind of like living in the middle of Grand Central Station—spacious, but you couldn’t get a moment to yourself.
    I put my work aside and headed downstairs to find my grandmother in the kitchen. “Hey, Granny,” I said. “Did you need something?”
    “Just dropping by. I was out running errands. Is your mother around?” Without waiting for an answer, she darted into the living room. She carried a cane, but I couldn’t remember her ever leaning on it. She mostly just waved it at people.
    “I think she’s at the grocery store,” I