Page 56 of River Wild

“I got a text from Annette to call you when I got home,” Cline said.

“Are you going to be at the ranch for a while?” the sheriff asked.

“I guess so. What’s this about?”

“I’ll tell you when I see you.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

HOLLYJOTRIEDto contain her excitement. Her very first dance, and she was going with Buck Savage, the dreamiest boy in school. She couldn’t help smiling to herself as she waited for Tana and her friends to pick her up to go decorate the gym. She hoped Buck came. The last time she talked to him, he’d said he would come by before the dance to give her a ride.

Fortunately, she’d talked HH into letting her go with him. She couldn’t imagine how embarrassing it would be to have her soon-to-be adoptive father take her and pick her up. The thought mortified her.

Seeing dust rising down the county road, Holly Jo felt that rush of excitement again. Soon she would be with her friends. But when the car pulled up, it wasn’t Tana. It was Buck.

She frowned, then broke in a huge smile.

The passenger side window came down. “Get in!”

Holly Jo bristled at his tone. She’d been so happy to see him, but now hesitated. Why was he acting like this. She glanced back down the road. No Tana. Buck must have told her that he would be picking her up. She looked back up the ranch road. No sign of HH or Pickett or anyone else. Still, she hesitated. “What’s wrong?”

“Who said anything was wrong? Come on,” Buck said, softening his tone. “You coming or not?”

The cutest boy in school wanted to give her a ride to class. Why was she hesitating? She knew Buck. Had spent time with him at school. Tana thought he was great. She’d been hoping Buck would ask her to the dance, her first dance with a boyfriend. It was just a ride to school, she told herself and climbed in.

He sped off before she even had a chance to put on her seat belt.

“Your old man came over to our house and gave me and my dad a ration of shit,” Buck said.

She blinked. Her old man? HH? He’d gone over to the Savages’? She tried to breathe. “What?”

He finally looked over at her, and she realized he was furious. “Are you deaf?”

“No. I just don’t understand,” she stammered.

“You’re turning out to be more trouble than you’re worth.”

She couldn’t believe he just said that.

He was driving too fast, and yet he looked away long enough to glare at her. “I thought you were smart. Why would you tell your father about us?”

“I didn’t,” she cried as she looked from him to the narrow gravel road. Towering thick cottonwoods lined both sides beyond the narrow barrow pit. Her heart pounded. She started to ask him to slow down when he hit the brakes, making her glad that she’d managed to get her seat belt on.

The car rocked and began to fishtail before he hit the gas and went down a path through the trees that led to the river. He brought it to a stop just feet from the bank.

She realized that she’d been hanging on, her fingers gripping the door handle white-knuckled.

He killed the engine and slumped in the seat, running his hand through his hair before looking over at her. “Did you tell him I was using you? That you were doing my math homework for me?”

“No,” she said quickly, even though shewasdoing his math homework for him.

“Well, someone did.”

Pickett, she thought, and felt like crying. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you,” she whispered.

They sat in silence. An occasional magpie squawked from a nearby tree. “I thought you didn’t mind helping me with my math so I could play football.”

“I don’t,” she told him quickly. “I know how much footfall means to you. Isn’t there a game next weekend?”

---