By the end of the game no one had really been paying much attention to it. Finally the seven had been shooed out of the living room to allow those that had been assigned to sleep in there to turn in. As Kira was preparing for the night, she thought to herself that the fellas were all going to be sporting some mighty big hangovers in the morning. None of them had drank anything but ‘shine in hours, nothing brought on a hangover worse than being dehydrated while getting a good buzz going. Kira had the sneaky suspicion that she wouldn’t be the only one a bit grumpy when the sun found Hazzard back in its sights come the morning.




The next morning, Kira awoke trying to avoid the bright streak of light that began to filter in from the window. She had a mild headache but she had expected worse considering that she wasn’t used to drinking the nearly two hundred proof ‘shine. Looking at her watch, she saw it was nearly seven o’clock. Surprised that she’d been allowed to sleep so long, Kira got dressed and headed on down to see if she could get some breakfast. Finding Daisy in the kitchen, Kira asked if she’d seen any of her partners in crime from the night before.

“Honey, Uncle Jesse got Bo and Luke up about a half an hour early for chores this morning then got the others up to help take down all the tables right after he FORCED them all to eat breakfast. Hard work has always been his way of punishment for having a hangover. They’re all lucky that there ain’t no fences that need mending right now. They’re all outside now getting everything up.”

“How’d I get lucky enough to avoid the Wrath of Jesse? ‘Course, I don’t have a hangover, just a mild headache.”

“You’d have to ask him I reckon. He’s around here somewhere.”

Kira headed outside and watched as the fellas were all busy taking the tables down and stacking the chairs. She felt sorry for the guys all out in the bright sunny morning, each with hangovers about the size of the whole state of Georgia. Walking over to Bo, she hands her sunglasses to him as she asks, ‘Need some help?’ Bo looks up looking like he just might get sick any moment before accepting the glasses.

‘How come you don’t seem too bad after last night?’

Kira started stacking some chairs near where Bo was taking down a table. ‘Let’s just say I learned more than just about the law in college.’ Bo looked at her a bit confused. Not knowing just what she meant by that. ‘I learned to make sure I drink a glass of water with each glass of liqueur. I kept snacking last night, too. In college, binge drinking is a favorite hobby of a lot of students.’

Bo just shook his head slightly. His head hurt too badly to really think on what Kira just told him. Soon, both trucks were loaded up and were ready to take a load of tables and chairs back to the Ladies League from where the Dukes had borrowed them. While Bo, Luke, Coy, and Vance left out to unload them, Jebb, Judd, and Kira kept working on the ones that had yet to be taken down or stacked.

The morning progressed without the usual banter back and forth that Kira had learned to expect from them. But what really made her feel bad for the fellas was when Pauline came out to talk to Coy, Vance and Judd. It seemed that Kira wasn’t the only one that she’d decided needed advice on relationships, though she seemed to come down even harder on her son. Pauline still had the girls at home yet she was already pushing Jebb to give her grandkids to spoil. The guys were currently dodging questions about if they had found a suitable girl to settle down with. When they planned to settle down. And of course a lecture of the evils of getting drunk. Kira noticed how all of the men seemed to accept the intrusion and lecturing with little more than some light squirming.

Kira knew now why the others had found her responses to Pauline to be entertaining. She had just done what they couldn’t bring themselves to do. Much to Kira’s relief, Pauline didn’t start in on her this morning. If she had, Kira highly doubted that she would have been as complacent as her blond and brunette cousins currently were to her needling.

Jebb had finally figured out how to get Kira alone. Of course he had to wait until after all of the tables and chairs had been loaded up on the two trucks and returned to the ladies league from where they had been borrowed. The whole time, his mother was competing with the headache he had pounding inside his head from the ‘shine he’d drank the night before. He wasn’t sure what was worse. The hangover (and having to work through it) or having his mother hounding at him to find a suitable girl to settle down with and start a family. If she only knew that he had actually been thinking along those same lines only to discover that the woman that he thought about “settling down” with just became his cousin. Wonder how mom would react to that? He thought to himself. Finally, all of the work was done and all those suffering from hangovers were released to find somewhere to hide as they waited for the effects of the ‘shine to wear off. Seeing Kira out by the bikes, he briefly said something about riding out to Rainbow Canyon to his mother as he walked by her and headed out to the bikes himself.

“Hey Jebb, what are you doing out here?”

“Probably the same thing as you. Hiding.” Kira laughed as Jebb glanced behind him, looking to see if he’d been followed. “Mom was talking about introducing me to a new neighbor back home.”

“Well at least I know that I’m not the only one she’s been harassing. I swear if I hear one more word about that Earl what’s his name that she’s been going on about, I’ll scream.” Jebb laughed as he figured, that unlike most people that might would say that just to be dramatic, Kira just might actually do it.

“Well if you’re done with your bike, how about I show ya to Rainbow Canyon where we can get some practice in while we’re waiting for the crowd to clear.”

“You’re on. It’s got to be better than when I raced the others.”

“Once out there, we can talk.” Jebb and Kira exchanged a look, since they both knew what they needed to talk about without anyone nearby to overhear.




Kira followed behind Jebb and pulled up beside him when he came to a stop.

“Uh, Jebb, I hate to tell you this but this don’t look like no canyon to me.”

“I know. I got to thinking; I said something about the canyon back in the farm house. I decided to bring ya out to the old silver mines instead. Just in case someone decides to join us. This way, no one should just show up.”

Kira nodded her head as they both walked their bikes just inside the mineshaft. Leaving her helmet with her bike, she walked over to Jebb as he pulled her in for a deep long kiss. He’d wanted to do that since yesterday morning. When they both came up for air Jebb just held on to his girlfriend for a few minutes. Finally, they both shifted a bit and the two intertwined their fingers and began to just wander down the shaft a little ways.

“So why here?”

“I figured coming to the mine shafts attached to old man Hansen’s farm would be far enough away to avoid being interrupted. Bo and I used to come here a lot when we were younger.”

“And this Hansen doesn’t mind you trespassing on his land?”

“Nah. He moved up north to live with his daughter years ago. I’m surprised that he’s kept up the taxes enough so that Boss can’t sell it. Though I guess he wouldn’t really get much for it, no how.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well acreage wise, it’s about the same size as the Duke land. As far as actual usable farm land though, it’s probably got less than half. The creek runs through most of it which makes for a great place to fish though but nearly the whole north western section is nothing but swampland. When Bo and I were younger we would come here to go mine-sledding.”

“Sledding? In the mine shafts?” Kira eyed Jebb while trying to picture what he and her brother had done as kids here in the old silver mine.

“Well Hazzard never does get any really good snow fall on a regular basis to go sledding in the winter-time. So when we were about eleven, maybe twelve, we started using the mine cars instead. We’d push off, ride down the shaft, and then jump out before we got to the bottom. For a couple kids that weren’t supposed to be down here at all, it was great fun. Don’t think we ever got caught either.”

“And just how did you to manage to do that?”

“Simple, we only came down here when Jesse was out on a cook. He’d leave Luke in charge.”

“And Luke just let y’all come down here to risk your fool necks?”

“Not exactly. We’d have ditch Luke to use the old mine cars to go sledding down the shafts. You see, since Daisy’s a few years older than me and Bo, it was right about the time she started to discover boys. Or rather, boys were starting to discover HER.”

“So while Luke was busy guarding Daisy’s virtue, y’all high-tailed it down here.”

Jebb smiled, “Pretty much.” Falling silent, they both began to feel slightly awkward. Taking off his coat, Jebb put it on the ground next to the wall of the shaft and sat down on it and pulled Kira down with him; sitting her in front of him so she could lean back into his chest.

“So what do we do now?” Kira felt the arms around her tighten slightly as if Jebb was afraid that she planned to take off.

“Well obviously we can’t just suddenly become cousins, so the way I see it, we really only have two choices. One we go back and just tell everyone that we’ve been dating for over a year.” Jebb felt nearly every muscle in Kira’s body tense up at the suggestion. She wasn’t really looking forward to that conversation with people that she’d just met. “Not that I didn’t try to convince you to go out before then. I guess I know who my new favorite cousin is now, though.” Jebb tried to lighten things up which earned him a light elbow to the abs. Okay, so she wasn’t going to have a sense of humor right now. “Or we could wait a bit; let you get your feet under ya. Maybe wait until after the holidays.”

“Jebb, we’re COUSINS. You really think that’s goin’ to go over well with everyone?” Jebb shrugged his shoulders at the question.

“From what I’ve heard, this wouldn’t be the first time that a Duke has got together with another Duke.” Kira leaned her head back to try to catch Jebb’s eyes. “At least that’s the old running joke that I’ve heard all my life. Not really sure just how much truth there is to it.”

“You have got to be kidding.”

“Nope. I guess sometimes the only one good enough for a Duke is another Duke.” Jebb chuckled a bit as Kira shook her head in disbelief. Jebb tightened his grip a bit to make Kira twist back around a bit and lean back into him again. “So I’m guessin’ that we’re just goin’ to wait.” Kira nodded her head slightly; fully recognizing that they weren’t really solving their problem. Just putting off dealing with it.

“This has definitely made for an interesting few days. That’s for sure.”

“Tell me about it. And it ain’t over yet.” Suddenly, Jebb was struck by a thought and couldn’t keep from laughing out loud.

“What?”

“I was right about one thing. You and mom get along about as well as two polecats goin’ at it.” Kira started to get up at that remark but Jebb had a firm hold on her.

“Not one of your best compliments Jebb.”

“Come on, you know I didn’t mean nothin’ by it. But it was funny yesterday morning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone talk to her like that.”

“I don’t think she ever has neither. And to make things better, IMAGINE if I had answered any of the personal questions she kept askin’ me Wednesday about my love life.” Kira looked back up at Jebb as she spoke. “Or if I had agreed to go meet your parents already? What would have happened when I came down stairs only to find them there? Or what if I’d let my mouth runaway without me when she asked how I plan to land a man; I could have told her that I’d already landed a man. HER SON!”

Jebb thought about it. Yes. It definitely could have been a bit more awkward. “So I guess we should thank God for small favors, huh?”

“I guess.” Kira nuzzled back a little more trying to get more comfortable as Jebb rested his cheek on the top of her head.

Once settled, they both fell into a comfortable silence. Jebb’s headache was still pounding and Kira had begun to feel the effects getting up far earlier than she was used to. Both began to feel their eyes grow a bit heavy. The next thing either of them knew, it was a couple of hours later. When Jebb woke up and checked his watch, he realized that they had stayed away from the farm longer than he had planned. Waking Kira up, they both got the bikes ready to head back to the farm.

“Uh, Kira. There’s one more thing we ain’t thought about. We’re all supposed to go out to The Boar’s Nest tonight. How are we supposed to act normal without making anyone suspicious?”

“What do you mean?” No, Kira got his drift. Duke Boys are known for their carousing and flirting and such. All of them had a certain way with the ladies; one of the reasons that Kira had refused to go out with Jebb at first. She doubted that he’d ever been turned down before that. In other words, he had to work harder to get Kira to go out than he was used to. That had only made Jebb more determined to convince her to date him. Now Jebb didn’t want to do anything that would make her mad at him.

“Oh, come on. You KNOW what I mean.” Jebb gave her a look that meant he really didn’t want to spell it out.

Kira began to laugh. “I ain’t goin’ to stop you from having a good time, Jebb. Just do what you always do, or act like I’m not there at all. If I was the type that got jealous easily, we never would have made it this far anyway.”

Jebb’s brows knitted together at what she said. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

“It means that YOU ALWAYS flirt with anyone around you. Sometimes I don’t even think you realize you’re doing it.”

“I do not.”

“See. But after watching you for years and now the other fellas in the family I’ve come to the conclusion it’s just part of being a Duke male. It’s like breathing for you. Besides, I think I know you well enough to know when you’re serious or not.”

“So what you’re saying is, I couldn’t make you jealous if I flirted with a few women tonight?” Jebb smirked at her assessment of the male Duke mentality.

“Nope. It’d be like every other time we’ve ever gone out.” Kira grinned as she reached for her helmet. “But if it makes things easier, go to the bar tonight as a single man.”

“What’s the catch?” Jebb looked over at his girlfriend skeptically as he waited for her to answer.

“I get to go as a single woman.”

“Um, yeh. I don’t like that catch.” Kira laughed as she started up her bike. Drowning out anything else that Jebb might have been saying.




“Well, that about does it. We’re all ready. I done said goodbye to everyone but Jebb and Kira. I ain’t seen hide nor hair of either of them in hours.” Pauline was guiding her daughters into the backseat of her car as her husband was putting the last suitcase into the trunk.

“Well, I saw both of them tear out of here on their bikes earlier. But with the way you were going on about them neighbors of yours, I kind’ve doubt they’ll be back ‘til after you’re done and gone.”

“Jesse, the only thing I was doing...”

“Was pushing every button you could on them kids. Same as you do every year. You know as well as I do that the more you push any of these youngens to do something, the more likely they’ll do the exact opposite. And ya didn’t even let Kira get her feet wet before ya started in on her too. Now Pauline you know I love ya to death but I’ve been waitin’ for years to see just how long it would take for these youngens to spit back. Now ordinarily, I don’t hold for no sassin’ back from these kids, but they’ve all got a fightin’ streak a mile wide and you can only poke a dog for so long before he bites back. Now these youngens have all been taught to respect their elders, but that don’t mean that you can take advantage of it.”

Pauline looked at Jesse in total shock as he chastised her for the first time in years. She was about to answer back when she turned towards the sound of two motorcycles racing up the driveway. The yellow and green bikes were coming up the drive in a dead heat with one another. The two pulled up just short of where Jesse and Pauline were standing. Pulling off his helmet, Jebb jumped off to hug goodbye to his mom and dad before they left, promising to be home Sunday evening.

Kira headed on inside during the goodbyes, looking for Coy and Vance since they would be leaving out shortly as well. She may not miss Pauline, but she would admit that she will miss those two. She made sure to give them both her number to her apartment and her office and told them to give her a ring if they were ever in Atlanta.




With all the relatives gone but Judd and Jebb, the house seemed oddly quiet after the invasion of the Duke farm. After evening chores, the six Duke cousins all decided to go Jukin’ that night to unwind after all the chaos that always follows a big get together. Despite the chill in the air, Kira declined to either ride in The General or take her own truck. Instead, like Jebb, she rode her bike out to the Boar’s Nest. After a brief attempt, Bo gave up trying to change her mind. He realized that she was only insisting on the bike because both he and Uncle Jesse had suggested for her to ride with the others. Both she and Jebb had already made a friendly bet on which of the two would beat the other to the bar first. Jebb had also tried talking to Bo about lightening up when it came to Kira. It seemed that he already knew Bo’s own sister better than he did.

Reluctantly, Bo decided to try to give her some space. But he wasn’t promising nothing if trouble starts. So here he was driving his three brunette cousins, Daisy, Luke, and Judd, in the General while Jebb and Kira took off on their bikes toward the Boar’s Nest. And try as he might, The General just wasn’t able to keep up with the bikes once they went off road into areas that no car, General included, could go.

Upstairs, Kira was getting ready to head out for the evening with her cousins (one of which just happens to be her boyfriend) and brother, she went back over her conversation with Jebb. She knew that he was going to take it as a challenge. Well, let him try; if he’s not too distracted. Kira grabbed a tank top that she usually only wore as part of a layered outfit since it had shrunk and was a bit snug, not to mention that the neck line was a bit revealing. The back was just low enough to give a glimpse of her Phoenix tattoo centered between her shoulder blades. Kira paired it with some hip-hugging jeans. She then pulled her hair back in a high ponytail then took a portion of it and braided it and wrapped it around the base then pinned it in place. Kira looked at her reflection.

Let’s just see who’s gonna get jealous tonight. Kira grabbed her motorcycle jacket and put it on. No sense in ruining the effect too soon.

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