Page 63 of Small Town Beast

He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “It sprung a flat about three stops ago. Passed it on the way up. The driver left it; he’s gettin’ loaded at the Greasy Hog as we speak.”

“Are you serious?” Tanya glanced at a battered digital watch on her wrist, then down the road with new determination. “I can wait for the next one.”

He plucked at the strap of her canvas bag. “Truth is, I’m just dyin’ to know what you think of my truck.”

“I’ve seen it,” she quipped.

“Not up in the royal seat. Come on.”

She hesitated, glancing back down the road.

“Just get in, chocolate.”

“I must be crazy,” she muttered, crossing the road with him. The height of his truck finally broke into her sense of humor. “My God! How the hell am I supposed to get up there? Trampoline?” she exclaimed.

“You didn’t have a problem the other night.”

She shot him a fierce look and he grinned.

When she was tucked into the comfortable passenger’s seat, Saverin cranked the air conditioning all the way up, satisfied when she sighed and leaned back in obvious relief. He pulled off the curb and made his way towards Black Florin. She didn’t say another word. At a stop sign he glanced across the console and found his Tanya fast asleep.

Instead of turning into Black Florin, he drove towards Laura Jane’s holler. Passing his cousin’s house, the rutted road tested his Legacy’s suspension. But still Tanya didn’t wake up. Poor chick must be weary to the bone.

He stole looks at her frequently, always amazed how damned pretty she was. Maybe some of these debutante types would have sneered at a girl like that– plain clothes, no face paint, no jewelry but the battered watch. But Tanya…She was just something else. Like an angel come to earth. An angelmadeof earth. He finally knew what her skin reminded him of. Not chocolate. No; it was the deep, dark richness of the old growth Bailey forest.

Soft lips. High brows. Slanted eyes. Her skin was dark, smooth, and hairless. So different from his. He picked up her hand where it rested in her lap and spread open her small fingers. At her wrist he felt the slow pulse of life.

Life…

I’m no good at this shit.

He pulled up to Wilks Johnny’s house and put down the windows down for her.

“Who’s that?” Wilks Johnny demanded as Saverin walked up. The old veteran’s sharp gaze missed nothing. “She can come up here and sit; I don’t bite.”

“Just a friend of mine. She’s tuckered out so I’m lettin’ her rest.”

“That’s a black girl,” Wilks Johnny observed.

“Last I checked.”

“Your girlfriend?”

“We’re friendly,” said Saverin in the abrupt country way that meant they were certainly more than that.

The veteran grunted, “Well, come on up and take a look at this roof. Be careful– I can’t do nothing for you if you break your ass and your lady won’t like it neither.”

“I won’t break my ass,” Saverin assured him.

Heights held no fear for Saverin Bailey. He’d once scaled a four-story pine without rope or line. His brother Sam had climbed up right behind him, panting.Wait up, motherfucker.

If you put some muscle on them chicken arms you’d be faster,Saverin had taunted back, grinning.

He waited at the top for Sam to meet him, and then brothers sat up there in perfect silence looking out at the serene view below, perched on the strong boughs of the pine.

The wind gently blew them back and forth as they admired the ancient Blue Ridge going on for miles in every direction. It was perfectly silent and still. Utterly, perfectly peaceful. Then Sam ripped a huge fart. They both nearly fell out the tree laughing like lunatics.

Saverin put his ladder up and climbed.

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