Cowboy Sing Me Home (9 page)

“Seattle, huh?  Luke just arrested a guy from Seattle the other day.  Not
one of your cohorts, is it?”  Toby laughed.

“Seattle’s not exactly like Aloma, Toby, where everybody knows everybody
else’s business.”  Wayne kept smiling, in that lip-curled way.  “I’m not at all
surprised to see you two still hanging around here.”

“Probably always will be,” Luke said.

“And you’re the sheriff now, Toby?  Took after your dad?”

“Yes, and Luke’s one of my deputies.”

Wayne gave them both another amused look.  “Well that’s great.  That
really is great.”

“Listen, maybe while you’re in town we can –“

“We’ll catch you later,” Wayne said, steering his mother away.

She threw him a confused look and turned to say a quick, “good to see
you,” over her shoulder as her son led her down the street.

Toby and Luke looked at each other.  “What was that all about?”

“He always was kind of a snob.”

Corinne held onto Cade’s hand and let him turn her in circles.  “He was
probably thinking about all the times you two tortured him, and feeling smug
because he’s gone so far with his career.”

“I never tortured him,” Luke said. “Toby’s the one who hid his algebra
book.”

“You can hardly call that torture.  Besides, he was such a brain he
didn’t need the book, and you’re the one who locked him out the dressing room
in nothing but his jock strap.”

“That was an accident.  I did not know he was behind that door.  And I
did apologize later.”

“Much later, after you picked yourself off the ground from laughing and
told the whole school about it.”

“Everyone had already seen it anyway.  And besides, it was funny.”  His
gaze followed  Wayne through the crowd.  “Do you really think he’s still mad?”

“From the way he was looking down his nose at you two, I think you can
count on him still being mad,” Corinne said.

“Oh well,” Toby said as he swung Cade up onto his shoulder.  “He may be
some hotshot computer guy now, but he doesn’t have the prettiest wife in town.”

“Come on, Dusty.  I’m going to win you a teddy bear at the dart game,”
Luke said as he took her hand again.

He chewed his lip as they walked, she noticed, and constantly scanned the
crowd.  He paid for his darts, and stood holding them for a second until his
gaze found Wayne Schotts and his mother once again. 

Dusty paid for her own darts and promptly popped two balloons out of
three. Luke was too preoccupied to notice, and threw all three of his darts
wide of his mark. 

“Something bothering you?” Dusty asked, since it was obvious there was.

Luke shrugged and bought three more darts.  “I was just feeling guilty
about Wayne and the jock strap thing.”

“Was it really an accident?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.  I think we were freshmen, maybe sophomores.  Toby
and Colt and I were horsing around and generally acting like idiots like we
always did, and we came through the door to the locker room.  I think Wayne was
walking through on his way to the shower or something, I don’t know.  Anyway,
somebody bumped him into us and he got pushed into the open doorway.  I was on
the other side and didn’t see him, and slammed it shut.  It wouldn’t have been
so bad, except the girls’ soccer team was practicing right outside that door,
so….”  He shot off a dart and missed.

“It doesn’t sound like you have anything to feel guilty about.”

“I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen, at the time.  I was
fifteen.  But I don’t know… if he’s still holding a grudge after all this
time…” He threw his two remaining darts, and one of them almost hit, but
didn’t.

Dusty held up three fingers and received three more darts.  Luke was too
busy scowling back at Wayne, so he didn’t notice when all three hit.  He turned
back and shook his head.  “We were pretty obnoxious back then.  We thought we
ran that school.  Now looking back…” He shook his head again and shrugged.  “It
makes me wonder what life was really like for Wayne.  I’m betting he doesn’t
look back on those days with fondness.”

“Did you go out of your way to bully him?”

“Not exactly.  I didn’t go out of my way to be nice to him, either.”

“Sounds like water under the bridge to me.”  Dusty pointed to a royal
blue teddy bear with yellow sunglasses.  The attendant took it down and handed
it to her, and Dusty handed it to Luke.

“What is this?” he asked.

“I won you a bear playing darts.”

They walked on toward the end of the row, slowly, and Luke said, “Okay,
so I was an obnoxious jerk in high school.  What about you?  You definitely
don’t strike me as the prom queen type, but I’ll bet you were popular.”

She shrugged.  “I guess that’s one way to look at it.  Everyone else
there loved me, that’s for sure.” 

Her face was transformed by a soft, fond smile.   Seeing it, he thought
he could see what she would have looked like as a young girl.  He took her hand
again.

She turned to him and cocked an eyebrow.  “I was home schooled.  Or car
schooled.  Motel room schooled.  My mom taught me, and we lived on the road. 
So I don’t have any fond memories of torturing my classmates or trying out for
cheerleader or getting chalk dust on my hands.”

“Really?”

She lifted her chin, and a defiant glint in her eye replaced the soft
smile.  “Really.”

He gave a short wave to someone as they passed.  “How cool.”

She swiveled her head to look at him again.  “What?”

“I think that’s cool, growing up like that.  You’ve had experiences not
many people have.  Did you travel the entire country?”

“Pretty much.  We spent most of our time in the South and Midwest,
because of the music we played.”

“And you played with them?”

“From the time I was three years old and could shake a tambourine.  I
worked my way up from there.”

“No wonder you’re so good.”

She rolled her eyes, but she also smiled.  “You know, when most people
find out about my childhood they talk about how sad it must have been to grow
up like that. No friends, unstable environment, all that. No
socialization
.”

“Maybe they didn’t see the look on your face when you talked about your
parents.  I know plenty of people who grew up in a so-called ‘stable
environment’ and they don’t get that expression when they look back on it.”  He
sure as hell didn’t.  His parents had a kind word for everyone they came
across, but nothing but disdain for each other.  He couldn’t imagine what kind
of  nightmare it would be to put them in a car together and drag them around
the country.   “That must have been a fun way to grow up.”

“It was.  Of course, I never knew anything different, but as I got older
and saw how everyone else lived, I realized how rare my parents were.” 

“You know, your whole tone changes when you talk about them.”  He stopped
and faced her, drinking in the tenderness that crept into her face.  “The lines
of your face go soft.  Your eyes even change color.”   He lifted his hand to
trace her hairline, from her forehead down to her ear.  “They’re really special
to you, aren’t they?”

He didn’t know why this surprised him.  Maybe because she kept herself
apart from everyone else, it was difficult to imagine there was anyone who
meant so much to her, even blood relatives.  During the short time he’d known
her, he’d already come to see her as someone who needed only herself.

“Of course they’re special to me.  They were my parents.”

“Were?”

She closed her eyes for a second, and moved out of range of his hand. 
“They died about ten years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well…” She shrugged and turned to begin walking again.

“You know, though, when you have your own family, you can have that same
special relationship with your kids.”

She cut her eyes up to his.  “I don’t have kids.”

“I know.  I’m talking about when you do.  I’ll bet you’d make a very cool
mom.”

She froze, facing him dead on, and whatever softness he’d seen in her
face before was gone.  When she spoke her voice was low and flat.  “That’s a
bet you would lose.”

She moved away from him, and when he reached out to stop her, the look in
her eyes stopped him cold.  “I have to go.”

She left him there to watch her make her straight-backed way through the
crowd, wondering what he’d said.  To no one in particular he said, “Why does
she keep
doing
that?”

            The woman was impossible, Luke decided a
few hours later as he talked on the phone to an officer from Seattle.  That was
all there was to it.  She was antisocial, grouchy and just plain rude.  Bad
news.  Probably end in disaster.

            He’d never been more intrigued by a woman
in his life.       

The air conditioner thumped off, and
almost immediately Luke felt the temperature in the office climb a couple of
degrees.  He looked at the thermostat and frowned.  If he turned it any lower,
the unit would freeze up again and they’d have to turn it off altogether to let
it thaw out.

            “It’s no problem to hold him a few more
days,” he said to the Seattle officer.  “We saw the news about the earthquake
this morning and figured you’d need all hands on deck.  How bad is it?”

            “Could be a lot worse,” the officer from
Seattle said.  “But you’re right, we need everyone here for the next few days.”

            “Like I said, it’s not a problem to hold
him.  But when you come, try to bring some of that Seattle rain with you. 
We’re about baked to a golden crisp down here.”

            “Will do.  I’ll call back in a couple of
days.”

            Luke walked back to Kenny’s cell after
he’d hung up.  He looked at the boy, whose shoulders were hunched up around his
ears.

            “That was about me?”

            “Matter of fact, it was.”  Luke put one
foot on the bottom rung of the cell door.   “We were right.  Because of the
earthquake, they’re not going to be able to come down and get you till next
week, probably.  So you get to stay with us for a while longer.  But that’s
good news, right?”

            Kenny just stared at him and swallowed. 
“Can I have another bottle of water?  The air is so dry here, my mouth feels
like it’s stuffed with cotton.”

            Luke got another bottle of water from the
fridge across from the cells.  Kenny was right, the air was so dry it
crackled.  But anyone as nervous as Kenny was bound to have a bad case of
cottonmouth no matter what the humidity was.

            The front door opened, and Toby walked in,
followed by Luke’s mother.

            Luke handed Kenny the bottle through the
bars and walked back up front.  As he returned his mother’s hug, he said, “What
are you up to this afternoon?”

            She set her purse on his desk.  “I thought
I ought to come up here and tell you the latest.”

            Luke leaned one hip on the desk. “From the
look on your face, the ‘latest’ isn’t good.”

            “Mavis is boycotting the entire Rain Fest
and the Jubilee in particular because she says she’s been insulted.  She says
no one wants to hear her high screechy voice.”

            “Well, that’s true, isn’t it?”

            Helen nodded.  “Yes, but her feelings are
hurt, and no one wants that, either.  She left in a big huff this morning, and
we ended up letting out early.”

“Yeah, I heard about that.”

“After lunch we got some of the girls
together to see what we could do to make her feel better, and I’m afraid there
was another… altercation.”

            “This choir has been altercating all over
the place.”

            “True.  But this one turned into a biggy. 
Mavis made it known that any of her true friends will show solidarity with her
and join her boycott.”

            A sick feeling settled in the pit of
Luke’s stomach.  The entire reason behind Rain Fest and the Jubilee was to get
away from silly struggles like this.  “That’s just nonsense.”

            “That’s what I said.  I’m afraid the
‘nonsense” versus “justifiable” was the first altercation on the agenda.”

            “Does she have enough supporters to make
this a problem?”

            “She has that many women afraid of her,”
Toby said.  “Remember that time we tore up her azalea bushes trying to catch Bo
Buchanan?  She gave me a pop on the butt that still stings.”

            “I remember Colt and I hightailed it out
of there, while you stayed behind and tried to work you charm on her.”

            “And she proved impervious.  So if you
need someone to go over there and try to sweet talk her into cooperating with
the Jubilee, don’t look at me.”

            “I doubt that will be necessary, although
I’ll call Brother Mark and see if he can get her feathers unruffled.”  He took
a deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest.  “Okay, so a few women are
joining her in the boycott?”

            “Actually, about half the choir stormed
out over the thing with Mavis.”

            “Half?”

            “She may be overbearing and tone-deaf,
Luke, but she’s also president of the Quilting Club and the League of Women
Voters.  People are afraid of offending her.”  Helen adjusted her glasses.  “So
we tried to reorganize the ones who were left and decide who was going to do
the solos, and another argument broke out.”