Just Down the Road (12 page)

He waited. This wasn’t a social call. He didn’t have to offer her a drink or make small talk. He’d just as soon hear whatever she had to say outright.

“Do you remember your wife having a sister?”

Tinch relaxed. If that was all this was all about, it wouldn’t be anything that might knock him off his feet again. “Her dad had a second wife after he left Lori Anne’s mother. Lori Anne only visited them a few times when she was growing up. I think they lived in Kansas City. As far as my wife knew, she only had one half sister, who was several years younger. Sadie, I think was her name. They traded Christmas cards for a few years after we married, but I don’t know where Sadie is or if Lori Anne’s stepmother is even still alive.” He noticed the sheriff wasn’t taking notes. “Is that of any help, Sheriff? That’s about all I know. We lost touch maybe six or eight years ago.”

“A great deal of help,” Alex answered. “We found a woman in a trailer tonight who had overdosed on drugs. Right now we don’t know if it was an accident or suicide, but according to her driver’s license her name was Sadie Ann Noble. You know anyone who could ID her for sure?”

“No.” Tinch shook his head. “I never met her, and even if Lori Anne was alive, I don’t think she could. The last time my wife saw her, the girl couldn’t have been more than ten or twelve.” A sadness settled in his thoughts. Lori Anne had always thought of her sister as a chubby cherub. He remembered Lori Anne saying once that from the minute she saw Sadie, she wanted to hug her. “After my wife’s dad died, she lost track of his second wife and kid. I tried to find them to let them know Lori Anne died three years ago, but I had no luck.

“If this woman was Sadie, she’d be about twenty-three
or four by now.” He looked straight at the sheriff. “What makes you think it might be a suicide?”

“There was a last will and testament in her bag, all signed and notarized. It was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Tinch Turner, General Delivery, Harmony, Texas. According to the will she didn’t have much, but what she had Sadie Noble left to you and Lori Anne.”

Tinch shook his head. “I didn’t know her. Lori Anne hadn’t heard from her in years. I don’t want anything she may have left. Give it to some charity in town, would you, Sheriff?”

“I can’t do that, Tinch.” For the first time Sheriff Matheson didn’t look too sure of herself. “At least until we get all this straightened out, I’d like you to keep him.”

“Him?” Tinch groaned. The last thing he wanted was a pet left to him by his dead wife’s half sister. He already had a barn full of horses no one wanted, and every stray that was dropped out on the road seemed to end up at his place.

“We don’t have any paperwork on him. Don’t even know how old he is for sure, but I think he’d be better off here with you for the time being.” She waved toward the deputy. “Just for a few days.”

Tinch was compiling reasons he didn’t want to take in a pet when the back door of the cruiser opened and a little boy stepped out. He took one look around and darted out of the light’s glow and into the total blackness of night.

Tinch raised his eyebrow. “A kid,” he whispered, then turned to the sheriff. “I’m guessing you didn’t bother asking him if he wanted to come stay with a total stranger before you tossed him in your car and drove him all the way out here. Hell, this place must look like the end of the world to a kid.”

“I would have talked it over with him,” Alex yelled as she tugged her flashlight off her belt. “Only he fell asleep as soon as I fed him. He knows about you. Told me his uncle Tinch had horses. I just didn’t plan on the sight of you scaring him away.”

The deputy swung his car around and pointed his bright
lights in the direction the boy had gone. Nothing. In a plowed field they’d be lucky to find a footprint before dawn.

Tinch shifted and flipped on the yard lights.

Nothing. The kid was faster than a jackrabbit.

He sat back in the swing and crossed his legs over the railing.

“Aren’t you going to help us find him?” Alex snapped.

“No. There’s a hundred places he could already be curled into by now. If he doesn’t want to be found, you’re not finding him tonight.” Tinch stared at her, making it plain that he considered his logic sound. “Wherever he is, he can see my lights. If he wants to come in, or gets cold or hungry, I’ll be waiting. If not, you’ll have better luck finding him after dawn.”

“You’re really not going to help, are you?”

Tinch shook his head. “If he wants to stay with me, he can, but I’m not forcing him, and I’m guessing neither can you, no matter how hard you try, Sheriff.”

“Officer Gentry,” she yelled in her most professional tone. “Grab your light. We’ll start circling, widening ten feet with every lap. No use calling in backup. They’ve got their hands full with the suicide.”

She turned to Tinch. “When I find him, I’ll call Child Protective Services and get him into the system.”

Tinch didn’t say a word, but he knew he’d never let the sheriff take the boy if he wanted to stay. The kid was Lori Anne’s blood and he’d always have shelter here.

T
RUCK
S
TOP

A
LITTLE AFTER NINE
, B
EAU
Y
ATES DROVE OUT TO THE
truck stop and picked up Willow. He smiled when he saw her waiting outside for him. Maybe she was as excited about their date as he was. They’d talked several times in the truck stop during her breaks, and once he’d waited two hours and driven her home, but until tonight they’d been just friends.

Tonight, they had a real date … well, almost a real date. With her working most nights and him playing weekends and trying to keep up with his classes at the community college in Clifton Creek, they had little time and no money to date. But tonight Big and Border’s neighbor had invited them over to eat some new Italian dishes she was trying out. Beau knew there would be lots of food and laughs. With luck, he wouldn’t have to talk much and could still have a date.

Willow climbed in his car. “I’m starving.” She laughed. “And for once I don’t have to eat the truck stop food.”

Beau backed out of the drive. “T-that the reason you agreed to go out with me?”

“Of course.” She laughed, and he hoped she was kidding.

“Tell me about this lady who cooks for the likes of you and Border Biggs. She crazy or just like to feed the wild things?”

“S-she’s a nice woman. Maybe ten years older than us, but not old. Her friend, a guy in a wheelchair, lived next door to the Biggs brothers for a while. When he moved out, she moved in. I-I think she’s waiting for him to come back, but Border’s brother doesn’t think he ever will.”

Willow wiggled out of her uniform top and Beau tried to keep his eyes on the road. After a few deep breaths he remembered what he’d been talking about. “S-she w-works at the post office, h-has for years.”
Concentrate
, he screamed inside his mind and tried to forget about the woman changing clothes beside him. “N-now she’s learning to cook and w-we’re the judges.”

“Or the guinea pigs,” Willow said as she leaned forward and pulled a blouse out of her huge purse. “I thought I’d dress up a little. It didn’t seem right to come to a dinner party in my uniform.”

Beau risked a glance at her. The bra she wore wasn’t much of a cover. “I-I think you look just f-fine the way you are.”

He didn’t know if she blushed, but he felt his face warm. Preachers’ kids don’t even get to look at Victoria’s Secret catalogs. He’d never seen a real girl wearing just a bra. Looking back at the road, he decided he must have some kind of fixation on breasts. If he wasn’t careful, he’d catch himself just thinking about them for no reason at all.

Willow pulled on a knit blouse and began combing her hair back. “I’ve been looking forward to this all week, Beau. I don’t get out of the late shift very often, and all my friends work, so they don’t want to do anything in the
mornings when I’m free. It’ll be nice to talk to people near my own age.”

“W-who do you usually talk to?” Now that he knew what was beneath her blouse, he felt like Superman. She was fully clothed, but he could still see what was underneath. It would take a hard hit to bounce that picture out of his mind, and he planned to hold on to it as long as possible.

“I usually sit around and listen to my mom and her buddies from her work. I only had two good friends in high school, and they left for college a month ago. Now I mostly hear about the loser boyfriends my mom and her friends find. They say by the time a man’s forty, if he’s not married, a girl needs to look long and hard at him before she even dates him.”

“Your p-parents are divorced?”

“Yeah. Since I was two. I think my dad must have been her first loser boyfriend. She hardly ever talks about him. Maybe she doesn’t remember him. He was so far back in the line of men she’s bedded.”

Beau pulled up in front of an old Mission-style duplex near downtown and turned off the car. Before she could move, he said, “Willow, I-I don’t date much.” He laughed. “T-that’s an understatement. I-I don’t date at all unless you count a few group dates in middle school, and one of my p-parents was usually driving us all.”

She didn’t interrupt, but he thought she looked like she was smiling.

“I-I don’t know how this is going to go tonight, s-so do you think I could kiss you now?” He stared straight ahead and said each word slowly. “That way, if I-I do something dumb and you’re sorry you came, at least I-I will have kissed you once before you decide never to speak to me again.”

He waited, half expecting her to laugh. Asking for a kiss before an almost-date was probably dumb enough to scare her off already.

To his surprise, she leaned over and touched her lips to his.

When she didn’t move away, Beau raised his hand to the back of her neck and continued the kiss. After a few long seconds, she placed her hand on his chest and straightened away from him. “Beau, this is already the best date I’ve ever had, and whatever happens next won’t change anything.”

“Really?”

“Sure.” She laughed and climbed out of the car.

Halfway up the walk, he caught up with Willow and took her hand. Neither said a word as they walked up the stairs.

Beau spent the entire evening wondering when he could kiss her again. Willow, on the other hand, seemed to love the little dinner party. She asked all kinds of questions and offered to help Ronny with the dishes. When Beau wanted to call it a night, Border told everyone that they’d play a few songs as a thank-you for the meal.

Willow and Ronny pulled up chairs and Big leaned against the window as they began to play. As always, Beau lost himself in first one song and then another.

After a few songs, Border leaned back and listened as Beau played his guitar and sang a few pieces he’d been working on. One was about how loneliness slowly smothers a heart.

When he finally looked up, both Ronny and Willow had tears in their eyes. “Y-you didn’t like the song? It’ll be b-better when I work on it some more.”

Ronny shook her head. “I loved the song.”

Willow smiled. “So did I.”

Beau was surprised by their reactions. He didn’t know if the song would work at the bar. It really wasn’t a ‘dance to’ beat. The one he called “Smothered Heart” was just one he liked to play when he was alone.

Everyone picked up and said good night. Border offered to go with Beau to take Willow home, but his big brother jerked him toward their half of the duplex.

Now that the date was almost over, Beau wasn’t sure what to do. He thought of asking for another kiss, but he wasn’t sure if that would sound right. They drove away in silence with him thinking that when he got her home and walked her
to the door, he’d just lean over and kiss her. If she didn’t want it, all she had to do was step back. If that happened, he’d probably just mumble good night and run for the car.

“Pull over there,” Willow said as she pointed to the park a block off Main.

He turned into the parking lot between the closed swimming pool and a bunch of old elms that shaded the playground equipment in summer. Half the leaves were gone from the trees, but they hadn’t lost their color. His lights flashed across a carpet of fall.

“Want to get out and walk?” she asked, already opening the door.

“Sure,” he said, thinking that walking in the park after dark didn’t seem like a real good idea, but this part of town was usually safe.

As they walked he liked the sound the leaves made beneath their feet, almost like the sound a drum makes when a brush whooshes across it.

The wind made a low howling whistle deeper into the park, and the chains on the swings clanked in time. Beau smiled. There was music in the air tonight. He thought if he listened closely he might capture it in his head.

They walked to where shadows crossed before she stopped and turned to face him. “You want to kiss me again?”

“Yes,” he answered without hesitation.

Moving closer, she whispered, “I wouldn’t mind if you did.”

He lifted his hand and cupped her cheek and was surprised to find she was shaking. She was as nervous as he was. He leaned down and touched his mouth to hers. Her lips felt warm and so soft.