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them credit. Shoving those thoughts aside, he said, “It’s not a lot—”
    â€œWhatever you have is fine with me,” Pam told him. “It’s the principle of the thing that’s important here. You and your brothers have an open tab and you’re paying on it, whatever you can, whenever you can.” She crossed her arms in front of her, as if daring him to contradict her.
    His momma raised him right. “Yes, ma’am.” They settled up and he tipped his hat. “Thank you, Miss Pam.”
    She shook her head at him. “You know that makes me feel really old when you call me that.”
    He shrugged. “Old habits die hard. My grandpa would have smacked me in the back of the head if I didn’t pay proper respect to you.”
    Her sad smile had him realizing he and his brothers weren’t the only ones who missed Hank Garahan. She blinked and cleared her throat. “Well now. What else can I do for you today?”
    He put his hands in his back pockets and rocked back on his boot heels. “Could you or your sister use another clerk here at Dawson’s?”
    He guessed from the surprised look on her face that his question hadn’t been what she’d been expecting from him. “We’ve only got two part-timers on my side of the store, but in a pinch, there are times I could use one more body. Why?”
    He shrugged. “Just asking.”
    She wasn’t having any of it. Frowning up at him, she started tapping the toe of her boot. “You’d best tell me now; you know I’ll find out as soon as Mavis drops by. The woman knows everything.”
    That had him grinning. He’d been hoping to run into her at Dawson’s. “I stopped to help someone on my way into town. Her car overheated.”
    â€œAnd she’s looking for work in town? A stranger?”
    â€œShe is now but didn’t used to be.” He shifted from one foot to the other, unnerved by her close scrutiny.
    â€œWell, this is like pulling teeth. Save us both the time it’d require for me to keep asking while you keep hemming and hawing, and just tell me.”
    He laughed and told her what happened on his ride into town.
    â€œWell then, she’s got to be Jimmy Sullivan’s niece Danielle, the one who married that bull rider a few years back. Jimmy’s right proud of her, though she hasn’t been to see him in half a dozen years.”
    â€œWell, since you know her,” he began, intrigued by the prospect of keeping the curvy little blonde close by so he could get to know her better, “do you know of anybody in town with a job opening?”
    â€œLike I said, my side of the store—the hardware side—doesn’t really need too many people working at one time, but on the food side—my sister’s side—well now she just might need a new cashier,” she said, tapping her cheek with her finger. “Let’s go ask her.”
    A half an hour later, Jesse had planted the bug in enough ears about Danielle Brockway looking for a job that the network of busybodies should be on full alert and looking. His work here was done, but now he was an hour or so behind schedule.
    Thinking and driving, he nearly shot past the disabled car at the side of the road. Pulling a quick one-eighty, he put it in park and walked over to Danielle’s car. As expected, the engine block had cooled enough that it was easy to see what had caused the vehicle to overheat: she was low on coolant and the engine nearly seized. Ranchers were pretty much a self-sufficient bunch; since that one time he’d cooked the engine and cracked the head on his grandfather’s truck, Jesse made sure he always had a gallon of water and couple bottles of 10W40. He always took care to keep his engine running cool and lubed. It was too expensive to keep replacing the damned heads all of the time, and unless you had a connection over in Mesquite, you paid