BOAB CH21

The girls pulled into the parking lot of Beefy's and exited laughing over the lyrics to a song on the radio. "I mean really, who thinks this stuff up?" Danni said giggling.

"I don't know, 'And I left a six-pack right there on his grave and I said, God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy', those are some Grammy award winning lyrics there!" Stefanie said as they poured into the entry way.

"I don't know about a Grammy, but I'm pretty sure he won some sort of ACM award or something for it, I just would never have thought to put those sentiments together myself." Roxie said closing the door behind her.

"Sentiments? That's awful fancy talk there Ms. Roxie," Carrie teased with a smile on her face.

Blushing Brennan said, "Some of us like to look at the books with words in them Carrie, instead of the skinny, shiny books that are full of celebrities."

"Touché."

The four of them followed the skinny red headed host to their table and ordered ice tea to start, in the case of Danni and Carrie their ice tea was provided by the good folks in Lynchburg Tennessee which got them all on the discussion of another outrageous country song by Brad Paisley.

"Speaking of Brad," Stefanie said after the waiter had taken their order, "I'm thinking of taking Clay to see him when he comes to Cheyenne in the fall, you think he'll enjoy it?"

"Really? Clay? I'm sure he'd love it, but that's a little outside your normal range with him isn't it?" Danni said sipping her 'tea'.

"I don't know, he's old enough and if I can convince him to leave Leo at home he might enjoy himself." Stefanie said with a soft smile for the boy.

"Do you have a picture of him?" Roxie asked, "I've heard you all talk about him and Stella but I've never seen him."

"Sure." Stefanie pulled her wallet out of her pocket and began to thumb through it to get a picture of Clay out when Roxie reached over and stopped her pointing to another picture, "Who's that? He is gorgeous!"

Stefanie quickly flipped the picture over and said, "Oh, that's no one, just an old friend, he's been gone for a long time, here, here's a picture of Clay." She handed Roxie a Christmas photo of the two of them and Santa, Clay looked just like her and also resembled someone else. Someone that Brennan had met recently. "He's adorable Stefanie, he looks like…Jesse. Are they related?" She knew that she was pushing and fishing but time was running short and they needed to get some hard evidence linking someone to the killings sooner rather than later.

"Jesse?" Carrie laughed loudly, "I don't think he looks like Jesse at all, let me see that." She took the picture and looked closely at it, "Well, maybe the hair color and chin, but that's it, can you imagine being related to Jesse?" she giggled and Danni joined in, "That would be 'party all the time', definitely." The waiter brought their meals and Roxie watched Stefanie put the picture back in her wallet carefully and take an extra second to look at the picture of the blonde cowboy on horseback as well.

"I think you are all delusional, he doesn't look anything like Jesse. He looks like Stella and Jax." Stefanie's tone was unintentionally brusque.

"I'm sorry Stefanie, I didn't mean to pry." Roxie said, touching her hand briefly, "I don't have anyone like Clay in my life; I guess I was just being a little pushy."

"That's okay Roxie; it's just a little confusing when you don't know all the back history. I don't mind, Clay is a great kid and I love him like he was my own, more now that I'm all he has." She turned to her meal and the girls began discussing past bonfires they'd had and the one that was upcoming. After lunch Brennan excused herself to go to the ladies room and while she was in there, she checked her phone and there were no messages from Booth, not that she really expected anything new to have developed, but she felt like she needed to talk to him.

Exiting the ladies room she was surprised to see Stefanie in the corner huddled over her phone, she paused briefly, hating that she was eavesdropping on what was definitely a personal conversation, but also needing to know if it may be pertinent. She really liked Stefanie and didn't want for her to be tangled up in something bigger than she could handle.

"I know mom, I understand that, but this weekend is going to be difficult." Stefanie said in a harsh whisper, "I'm not trying to 'hide' from anything." There was a reply on the other end to which she said, 'I know that! I don't think this is the right time, I'll know when it's right."

Brennan moved past her and mimed that she meet her up front, "Fine, mom, listen, I'll be out there tomorrow after work and we can talk more then okay? Give him a hug for me and tell him I'll see him tomorrow."

"Is he there?"

"With Leo right?"

"No, I don't have time to wait, I have to get back to work, just tell him I'll see him tomorrow." Stefanie hung up the phone and taking a moment to brush her hair back from her face, pasted a false smile on her face as she made her way back to the table.

"Well, ladies, are we ready?" Carrie asked, pulling her wallet out.

"I'm ready, let's get that office whipped into shape and then go see what kind of horse Roxie has." Danni said, standing up, "Steff, are you okay?"

Distracted, Stefanie was looking out the window, "What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine, just," she rolled her eyes, "You know how my mom is, she wants me to come over for dinner tonight and I'm just not sure I can handle three days in one week, you know? I told Clay I'd be over tomorrow and Sunday of course, but, well you know moms, right?" She shrugged her shoulders and stood up.

"Believe me, I know mom's alright," Carrie said, "Mine is certainly not a candidate for parent of the year. Remember that time Dirk was sick and Tyson was workin' and mom said that Dirk was just fakin' it to not have to go plow?" She turned to Roxie and continued, "My step daddy was at work and Dirk came in from the field just drippin' sweat and tellin' Mama that he felt funny, she told him he was lazy and to get back on the tractor, she was watchin' her stories and didn't want to be interrupted. He came to where me and Danni were playin' by the barn and looked positively grey, so we got him up in the old truck Tyson kept on the ranch to feed the cows and stuff with and drove him into town."

Danni jumped in, "Neither one of us was old enough to drive, or tall enough to reach the pedals and steer at the same time, so I worked the pedals and Carrie steered. It was a good thing to, Dirk's appendix had ruptured and we got him there just in time." The two of them shared a smile, and then Carrie said, "Yeah, boy was Tyson mad when he saw the sheriff driving his truck back to the ranch, he thought that Dirk had taken it and gotten in trouble or something." She stopped and looked at Danni.

"What did your mom do?" Roxie said, wondering how a mother could be like that.

"She told Tyson that she'd been picking beans and hadn't heard us calling her and that us 'fool kids' could've gotten all of us killed, of course Tyson believed her. She spent the rest of the weekend hanging over Dirk like he'd invented 'General Hospital' or something." Carrie said with obvious disgust.

"I'm sorry, that sounds terrible Carrie, it's a good thing you were there."

Shrugging she opened the car doors with her remote and they all got in, "Oh it's nothing, I got a million of stories like that, it's a wonder Tyson stayed as long as he did. What about you, what's the dirt behind you Roxie? Got a sordid past?"

"Incredibly. It's the stuff that romance novels that end up on the cutting room floor are made of. Someday when I've had more than enough to drink I'll share some of it with you, okay?" They all laughed as Carrie drove them back to the office.

~Meanwhile~